Binance said Oct. 29 it was investigating reports of a potential security issue at the cryptocurrency exchange, according to the Associated Press. A Binance spokesperson told AP, “Rest assured that user funds are completely safe.” In a statement quoted by Bloomberg, the spokesperson said Binance had “not confirmed any impact to user funds.” AP reported that Binance had not explicitly confirmed any funds were stolen.
Two stablecoin issuers described freezes tied to the incident. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle froze the equivalent of more than $800 million associated with it “in coordination with law enforcement,” AP reported. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said Tether froze the equivalent of more than $1.5 billion related to “a potential Binance exchange hack.” Those are amounts the executives said they froze, not a confirmed tally of stolen funds.
Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer manages the company, posted that the incident “does look like a hack on Binance,” according to AP. He said he expected, as a shareholder, that user funds would be fully covered. That was Zhao’s expectation, not a coverage pledge from Binance.
Axios reported that analysts and traders estimated between $1.7 billion and $5.7 billion was taken in the suspected attack. Binance had not confirmed a total, Axios said. Separately, AP reported that bitcoin fell 3.2% Thursday evening to under $79,000. The estimates and price move do not establish how much, if anything, was stolen from Binance.
