Crypto giant Binance freezes $2.5bn of assets over suspected hack

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has frozen over $2.5 billion in digital assets following a suspected security breach, according to the company's announcement on Thursday. All deposits and withdrawals have been temporarily suspended as Binance's security teams investigate the incident.

Binance's chief executive Changpeng Zhao confirmed that the company would cover any losses resulting from the freeze. Zhao also noted that two other prominent crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, have taken similar actions by freezing around $1.7 billion in potentially stolen assets.

Jeremy Allaire, Circle's CEO, stated that his company is closely monitoring the situation and has frozen more than $800 million in assets related to the incident. Circle is the issuer and co-creator of USDC, one of the largest U.S. dollar-backed cryptocurrencies.

Binance emphasized that the amount of frozen funds may increase as they collaborate with law enforcement and other partners to trace and seize additional assets. The company has assured users that their funds are safe and urged them to rely on official Binance channels for updates. Binance, recognized as the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes, experienced a drop of around 5% in Bitcoin's price following the alerts, alongside sharp declines in other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Solana.