Bitcoin prices slide on reports of major hack of crypto platform Binance

NEW YORK: Cryptocurrency platform Binance said on Thursday that it had fallen victim to a major hack, resulting in the freezing of more than US$2.5 billion in an effort to prevent the assets from being stolen.

The company — the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes — said it had suspended trading on certain products.

It nevertheless insisted: "User funds are completely safe."

Several experts said it appeared that a massive amount of assets had been stolen.

"It does look like a hack on Binance," said former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the group but remains a majority shareholder.

Paolo Ardoino, chief executive of Tether — a company that issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT — said his firm had frozen about US$1.6 billion "related to a potential Binance exchange hack".

Circle chief Jeremy Allaire said his company had frozen more than US$800 million in USDC.

USDT and USDC are both "stablecoins", or digital currencies whose value is linked to a traditional currency, the US dollar.

For several hours before Binance confirmed the attack, several industry observers said hackers had managed to access the platform.

Some said it could be the biggest-ever cyberattack of its kind, with a haul exceeding the US$1.5 billion stolen in February 2025 from the Bybit platform — an incident attributed to hackers affiliated with North Korea.