Circle and Tether freeze $2.54bn tied to potential Binance security issue
Crypto firms froze funds linked to a possible hack at Binance, which says it is investigating reports of a security issue and that user funds are safe.
At a glance
- Circle and Tether froze $2.54 billion in funds tied to a potential security issue at Binance, which said it is investigating.
- Circle froze over $800 million in USD Coin and Tether over $1.5 billion in USDT; Ripple helped halt $200 million.
- Bitcoin fell more than 3% below $80,000, ether dropped nearly 4% and Circle shares slid about 5% after hours.
Circle Internet Group and stablecoin issuer Tether froze $2.54 billion in crypto funds on Thursday, following reports of a potential security breach at the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, did not explicitly confirm that it had been exploited. "Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating," a Binance spokesperson said. "Rest assured that user funds are completely safe."
Binance also said on X that Binance Alpha trading had been temporarily suspended, and that "the current verified total frozen is $2.54 billion."
Stablecoin issuers step in
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Thursday evening in a social media post that the company had frozen more than $800 million in USD Coin associated with the incident. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his firm had frozen more than $1.5 billion of its USDT stablecoin that may have been related to a potential breach.
Binance co-founder Yi He later said Ripple, the firm tied to XRP and RLUSD, helped halt the movement of $200 million in funds linked to the possible attack.
The frozen sums could represent only a fraction of the assets affected. Crypto data provider Arkham Intelligence linked nearly $6 billion in digital assets — including bitcoin, ether, solana and various stablecoins — to 55 wallet addresses it has tied to the potential exploit. Arkham identifies and flags crypto wallets by analyzing publicly available blockchain data, and also collects tips from community members.
Zhao says funds covered
Changpeng Zhao, Binance's founder and former CEO, said in a post on X that user funds were safe and that he expected all customer funds to be fully covered. Zhao, who no longer runs the exchange, also said the incident appeared to be a hack.
Exploits are not uncommon in the crypto sector. In 2025, Bybit suffered roughly $1.5 billion in losses due to a hack, and Bitget more recently lost more than $350 million worth of digital assets in a cyber theft. Over the past several years, bad actors have also drained billions of dollars in crypto from decentralized exchanges.
Markets reacted quickly. Bitcoin, the most widely followed cryptocurrency, slid more than 3%, breaking below $80,000. Ether fell nearly 4%, while solana shed about 3%. Shares of Circle also tumbled about 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday.
Source: CNBC.
Questions and answers
- Did Binance confirm it was hacked?
- Binance did not explicitly confirm an exploit. A spokesperson said the exchange was aware of reports of a potential security issue, was investigating, and that user funds were completely safe.
- How much crypto was frozen after the Binance incident?
- Binance said the verified total frozen was $2.54 billion. Circle froze more than $800 million in USD Coin, Tether froze more than $1.5 billion in USDT, and Ripple helped halt $200 million.
- How did crypto prices react?
- Bitcoin slid more than 3% and broke below $80,000, ether fell nearly 4% and solana shed about 3%. Circle shares dropped about 5% in after-hours trading on Thursday.
