Crypto Firms Freeze $2.54 Billion Linked to Binance Security Incident

Major cryptocurrency companies froze $2.54 billion in digital assets connected to a potential security breach involving Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. The incident prompted an investigation and triggered declines across major cryptocurrency markets.

Binance acknowledged reports of a possible security problem but did not explicitly confirm that its platform had been hacked. The exchange said its teams were investigating the incident and maintained that customer assets remained protected.

Binance also temporarily suspended trading through its Binance Alpha service. In a statement posted on X, the company disclosed that the verified amount of frozen funds had reached $2.54 billion.

A Binance spokesperson addressed the security concerns and reassured customers about the status of their assets.

"Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating. Rest assured that user funds are completely safe." a Binance spokesperson said.

The exchange subsequently provided an update through its social media account, confirming the amount of assets that had been immobilized.

"the current verified total frozen is $2.54 billion." Binance said on X.

Changpeng Zhao, Binance's founder and former chief executive, also addressed the incident. He said customer funds were safe and expected all customer assets to be fully covered. Zhao no longer manages the exchange and described the incident as apparently involving a hack.

Circle and Tether accounted for substantial portions of the frozen assets. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Thursday evening that his company had frozen more than 800 million in USD Coin associated with the incident.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino separately announced on X that his company had frozen more than 1.5 billion in its USDT stablecoin that could be connected to the potential security breach.

Binance co-founder Yi He later disclosed another intervention involving Ripple. According to her statement, the company helped prevent the movement of $200 million in funds associated with the possible attack.

Despite the $2.54 billion in confirmed frozen assets, the total amount potentially affected could be considerably higher. Blockchain analytics provider Arkham Intelligence identified nearly $6 billion in digital assets associated with 55 wallet addresses linked to the suspected exploit.

The assets identified included Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and several stablecoins. Arkham Intelligence tracks and identifies cryptocurrency wallets by examining publicly available blockchain records and also collects information from community members.

The incident adds to a series of significant security breaches affecting the cryptocurrency industry. In 2025, cryptocurrency exchange Bybit suffered approximately $1.5 billion in losses following a hack.

More recently, Bitget lost more than $350 million worth of digital assets in a cyber theft. Decentralized exchanges have also experienced multiple incidents in recent years in which attackers drained billions of dollars in cryptocurrency.

Financial markets reacted negatively to the developments. Bitcoin, the world's most closely followed cryptocurrency, declined more than 3% and fell below $80,000 following statements from industry executives.

Ether dropped nearly 4%, while Solana lost approximately 3%. The declines affected several major digital assets as investors responded to concerns surrounding the potential security incident.

Circle's publicly traded shares also came under pressure, falling approximately 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday.