Quick answer: The Binance hack on Oct. 29, 2026 sent billions out of Binance hot wallets; Arkham links about $5.84 billion to the attacker’s wallets. Binance says $2.54 billion is frozen, withdrawals and deposits are paused, and it will cover all losses, per Binance, Cointelegraph and CNBC.
The Binance hack is shaping up to be the largest crypto theft on record. On Oct. 29, 2026, billions of dollars in assets left Binance hot wallets for addresses controlled by an unknown attacker, and by early Oct. 30 UTC the exchange had paused both withdrawals and deposits while it traced the funds.
Binance says user funds are safe and that it will “cover all losses.” However, the open question is how much of the money partners can still freeze before the attacker launders it.
What happened in the Binance hack?
The first alarm came from on-chain researcher Spreek, who flagged assets moving from a Binance-linked Ethereum wallet to a freshly created address through a contract call allegedly funded via Tornado Cash, Cointelegraph reported. After that, wallets tied to the transfers started selling USDT on decentralized exchanges.
Security firm Blockaid said it was investigating about $3.3 billion in suspicious outflows across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche. Meanwhile, Coinbase’s Conor Grogan put the figure at up to $5.8 billion, according to The Block. Arkham Intelligence grouped 55 wallets under a “binance-hacker-1029” label holding about $5.84 billion, although that is a holdings figure, not a confirmed loss.
At 21:15 UTC, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao wrote on X that “it does look like a hack on Binance” and said he expected all user funds to be fully covered.
How much has been frozen so far?
First, stablecoin issuers moved fast. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said at 21:25 UTC that Tether froze more than 1.567 billion USDT. Similarly, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle froze more than 800 million USDC in coordination with law enforcement, CNBC reported.
In addition, others joined in:
- Ripple helped halt about $200 million linked to the attack, per Binance co-founder Yi He.
- World Liberty Financial froze $27 million in USD1 and $2 million in WLFI.
- Arbitrum’s Security Council froze about $30.5 million at roughly 00:14 UTC on Oct. 30, per ZachXBT.
As a result, Binance says the verified frozen total is $2.54 billion, and it expects that figure to rise as investigators trace more assets.
How did the attackers get in?
So far, nobody has confirmed it. Blockaid CEO Ido Ben-Natan told Cointelegraph that the preliminary picture points to “key misuse,” meaning a compromise of Binance’s signing infrastructure rather than a leaked private key. Moreover, Arkham CEO Miguel Morel said the attack appeared to still be ongoing. For now, Binance has promised a full post-mortem.
Are Binance user funds safe?
Binance says yes. The exchange said it suspended withdrawals, then deposits and Binance Alpha trading, while it runs security checks and works with law enforcement, and that it will resume withdrawals once the issue is resolved. Binance.US saw no impact, per Cointelegraph.
If you hold funds on Binance, the practical steps are simple:
- Do not send new deposits until Binance confirms deposits are open again.
- Also, ignore any “refund” or “verify your wallet” messages; scammers move fast after big hacks.
- Never share your seed phrase with anyone claiming to help.
What does the Binance hack mean for the crypto market?
As a result, prices fell as the news spread. Bitcoin traded near $77,149 at about 01:00 UTC on Oct. 30, down 4.8% in 24 hours, while BNB fell about 8.2% to $693.58 and ether dropped 5.8% to $2,217, per CoinGecko. That extends the slide that took Bitcoin below $80,000 a day earlier. Track live moves on our Bitcoin price page.
Still, the ripple effects reach beyond Binance. Aave froze its DAO-operated V3 and V4 markets so the attacker could not borrow against stolen assets, while saying its contracts were unaffected. Market makers Wintermute and GSR disclosed Binance exposure of under 20% and under 5% of net equity, respectively, and said they did not expect major disruption.
Besides, the hack lands on a bad day for security: hours earlier, Polymarket paused trading after a third-party compromise. If Binance absorbs the loss as promised, the hit to users may be small, but a slow withdrawal restart could test confidence in centralized exchanges.
Binance Hack FAQ
How much was stolen in the Binance hack?
The final loss is not confirmed. Arkham links about $5.84 billion to the attacker’s wallets and Coinbase’s Conor Grogan cites up to $5.8 billion in outflows, while Binance says partners have frozen $2.54 billion as of Oct. 29, 2026.
Can I withdraw from Binance right now?
No. As of early Oct. 30, 2026 UTC, Binance has paused withdrawals and deposits during its security checks. It says withdrawals will resume once the issue is resolved.
Will Binance cover user losses?
Binance says it will “cover all losses,” and co-founder Changpeng Zhao said he expects all user funds to be fully covered.
Is Binance.US affected by the hack?
No. According to Cointelegraph, the incident did not affect Binance.US.
Not financial advice. Crypto assets are volatile; do your own research (DYOR).
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