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AI summary of a third-party reportBearishNewsDesk

Binance says $2.54bn frozen as it investigates suspected wallet hack

Binance has suspended deposits and withdrawals while it investigates a suspected breach of an Ethereum wallet, with stablecoin issuers and other firms freezing funds linked to the transfers.

InvestIn.News NewsDesk · 1 min read
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Picture from Cointelegraph for: Binance says $2.54bn frozen as it investigates suspected wallet hack
Image: Cointelegraph
Original reporting: Nate Kostar, Cointelegraph

Key points

  • Binance says $2.54bn in assets has been verified as frozen, a figure it expects may rise as tracing continues.
  • Tether froze more than $1.57bn in USDT and Circle more than $800m in USDC, according to their CEOs.
  • Blockaid's Ido Ben-Natan says the preliminary assessment points to misuse of signing infrastructure rather than a leaked private key.

Binance is investigating a suspected hack of one of its Ethereum wallets, a case the exchange says has led to $2.54bn in assets being frozen. The exchange has suspended deposits and withdrawals while it runs security checks and works with law enforcement. It said it would publish a full post-mortem and cover all losses.

Concerns were first raised by blockchain researcher Spreek, who reported transfers from a Binance-linked wallet to a new address. Arkham Intelligence later tracked wallets labelled "binance-hacker-1029" holding about $5.84bn, a figure reflecting their holdings rather than a confirmed loss. Blockaid identified roughly $3.3bn in suspicious transfers across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche.

Signing key questions

Stablecoin issuers moved quickly. Tether's Paolo Ardoino said more than $1.57bn in USDT had been frozen, while Circle's Jeremy Allaire put its USDC freeze at more than $800m. Ripple is freezing RLUSD tied to the incident, and World Liberty Financial froze $27m in USD1 and $2m in WLFI. Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said he expected user funds to be fully covered.

Blockaid co-founder Ido Ben-Natan told Cointelegraph that the preliminary assessment pointed to misuse of signing infrastructure rather than a leaked private key. Aave froze markets run by its governance system as a precaution, saying its contracts were unaffected. Market makers Wintermute and GSR disclosed Binance exposure but expected no major disruption.

What to watch: Binance says withdrawals will resume once the security issue is resolved and it will publish a full post-mortem when the investigation is complete.

Read the full story on Cointelegraph

Live updates on NewsFeeds:StablecoinsDesk editor: Keshav Aggarwal (accountable for this page; this summary was not edited by hand)

How this was produced: an AI model wrote this summary of Cointelegraph’s report, which we credit and link above. Read our Editorial and AI policy. Spotted a mistake? See Corrections.

Not investment advice. Read the risk disclaimer.

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