Binance hacked? Withdrawals suspended as exchange puts damage at $6.3 billion
Binance says a hacked engineer's laptop may be behind its record breach. Is your money safe, and what should Pakistani users do while withdrawals are frozen?
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has suspended all deposits and withdrawals after what may be the biggest theft in crypto history. The exchange says the total impact is around $6.3 billion, that about $3 billion has already been frozen on-chain, and that it will cover every user’s loss.
“Binance hacked” became one of the top searches in Pakistan on Thursday night as users here found withdrawals frozen and prices falling.
What happened at Binance?
On Thursday, 29 October, users began reporting that funds were being drained from Binance’s hot wallets, the internet-connected wallets an exchange keeps for day-to-day withdrawals. Within hours, co-founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, posted on X that it “does look like a hack.” He no longer runs the company but is still its largest shareholder.
Binance first said it was “aware of reports of a potential security issue” and was investigating. A spokesperson then said withdrawals had been “temporarily suspended on multiple networks” as a precaution. Later the exchange went further and paused all deposits and withdrawals, as well as trading on Binance Alpha.
How did the attackers get in?
In its latest update on X, Binance said its first findings suggest a DevOps engineer’s laptop was compromised. That gave the attacker access to a service container, from which unauthorised withdrawal transactions were sent. Binance said it has found no evidence that any wallet private key leaked. The company has promised a full post-mortem once the investigation ends. Nobody has claimed the attack, and Binance has not named a suspect.
How much was stolen, and how much is frozen?
The numbers moved all day. Binance’s own estimate of the total impact is about $6.3 billion. Blockchain analysts have given lower figures, from around $3.3 billion to $5.8 billion, because some of the money was blocked before it could be moved.
The freeze is the other big part of the story. Tether’s chief executive, Paolo Ardoino, said the company froze more than 1.567 billion USDT linked to the hack. Circle said it froze more than 800 million USDC in coordination with law enforcement. Binance’s verified frozen total rose from $2.54 billion to about $3 billion during the day and could go higher.
For scale: the previous record was the roughly $1.5 billion taken from the Bybit exchange in February 2025.
Is my money safe on Binance?
Binance says yes. “User funds are completely safe,” the exchange said, adding that it will cover all losses from its SAFU emergency fund and company money. CZ said he expects user funds to be “fully covered.” Binance.US says its separate platform was not affected.
The practical problem is access. Until withdrawals restart, nobody can move coins off the exchange, and Binance has not given a date.
The market felt it. Bitcoin dropped to a six-week low of about $77,600 in early Asian trading on Friday, and Ether hit a two-month low near $2,239.
What Pakistani users should do now
Pakistan has one of the larger crypto user bases in the region, and Binance’s P2P market is how many freelancers and young traders here buy and sell USDT. A few things are worth doing today:
- Don’t panic-sell inside the app. Prices are jumpy and withdrawals are closed anyway.
- Ignore “recovery” offers. Binance has warned users not to trust unofficial links, messages or anyone asking for account details. Scammers always follow a big hack.
- Check P2P orders. If you were mid-trade, keep screenshots and use Binance’s in-app support only.
- Turn on every security setting you have: 2FA, anti-phishing code and withdrawal whitelist.
The next thing to watch is Binance’s post-mortem and the date it reopens withdrawals. That will show whether its promise to cover every dollar holds up.
