Binance estimates security incident impact at $6.3 billion

Binance said on Oct. 30 that a security incident had an estimated impact of $6.3 billion, with about $3 billion frozen on-chain, according to the exchange’s security incident update. Binance said its initial investigation points to a possibly compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which may have let an attacker access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

What was affected, and what has Binance confirmed?

Binance said it found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked and would cover all losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds. The exchange said deposits continue to operate normally, while withdrawals remain suspended during security checks.

The Associated Press reported that Binance had not explicitly confirmed that funds were pilfered. The exchange described $6.3 billion as the incident’s estimated total impact, not as a confirmed amount stolen.

How much has been frozen so far?

Binance said it had worked with blockchain partners to freeze about $3 billion in affected assets on-chain. It also revoked authorization for affected addresses and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds, according to its update.

When will Binance publish more details?

Binance said it would publish a technical post-mortem after its investigation is complete and the facts are verified. It also plans to update its proof of reserves after remediation is complete.

Withdrawals remain paused while Binance completes its security review. In a separate service update, the exchange said it expected withdrawals to resume within 48 hours; the investigation and asset recovery work are ongoing.

Source material

• security incident update — binance.com