Exchange halts deposits and withdrawals, assuring users it will cover losses.
Dubai: Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has disclosed a security breach involving an estimated $6.3 billion (Dh23.1 billion) in digital assets, with around $3 billion frozen as investigators work to recover the funds.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals following the incident, which analysts say could rank as the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.
Binance said its preliminary investigation indicates that an attacker may have compromised an engineer’s laptop, gained access to an internal system and initiated unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
The company said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were exposed.
Binance pledged to cover all losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds, maintaining that customer assets remained safe.
$3 billion in assets frozen
Binance worked with blockchain companies, including Tether and Circle, to freeze cryptocurrencies linked to the breach.
Tether froze nearly $1.57 billion worth of assets, while Circle blocked more than $800 million. Ripple and other companies also assisted in restricting transfers of the affected funds.
The exchange said it had frozen around $3 billion worth of assets so far but offered no update on the remaining $3.3 billion.
The overall impact remains an estimate, with Binance yet to determine its final losses.
Bitcoin, ether prices slide
The incident weighed on cryptocurrency prices during early Asian trading on Friday.
Bitcoin dropped to a six-week low of $77,646, while ether fell to a two-month low of $2,238.76, Reuters reported.
BNB, the cryptocurrency associated with Binance, declined by more than 8 per cent over 24 hours.
Binance has revoked authorisation for the affected address and engaged law enforcement agencies and blockchain investigators to trace the transactions.
The exchange said deposits and withdrawals would resume once security checks were complete, but did not provide a timeline.
It also plans to publish a detailed technical report after concluding its investigation.
