Binance investigates possible $5.000 billion hack as withdrawals are paused and Tether, Circle freeze more than $1.500 billion

Binance says its security teams are investigating a possible security incident and has suspended withdrawals while it reviews what happened. For PSPs, exchanges, and banks touching crypto flows, the immediate signal is the same one every time: pause outbound movement first, then follow the chain analysis and stablecoin freezes.

1. Binance, described as the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said its security teams are “actively” investigating reports of a possible security incident. The company posted first on X, saying user funds were “completely safe” and that it would share updates through official channels once it had verified information.
2. The company then confirmed that withdrawals were suspended while “security checks” were underway. Binance said withdrawals would resume once the security issue had been fully resolved, and warned users to watch for scams, unofficial links, messages, or requests for account information.
3. Changpeng Zhao, Binance co-founder and former CEO, was more direct in a post on X: “Yes, it does seem like a hack on Binance.” He also thanked Tether and Circle for freezing funds linked to the episode, saying Tether froze $971 million and Circle froze $823 million.
4. Binance did not confirm the reported size of the incident. The figure of more than $5.000 billion comes from firms and portals that track blockchain activity, and Decrypt reported that at least $5.570 billion had moved out of wallets linked to the platform.
5. According to the Reuters text cited in the report, Zhao founded Binance in 2017, pleaded guilty in 2023 to a felony tied to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform, stepped down as CEO, was sentenced to prison for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, and was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2025, as AP previously reported.

For high-risk operators, the useful detail here is not the headline number; it is the operational sequence. Withdrawals were halted, stablecoin issuers froze funds, and the exchange pushed users toward official channels. That is the part counterparties, acquirers, and compliance teams need to map against their own incident playbooks.