Bitcoin falls on reports of potential Binance hack

Reports of a potential hack at Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, prompted emergency asset freezes and sent bitcoin lower, Bloomberg reports.

Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, fell 3.7% to below $79,000, its lowest level since September. Traders were already bracing for heightened volatility, Bloomberg notes. Options worth $11 billion expire on Friday, just days before the U.S. midterm elections, in which Democrats could win control of one or both chambers of Congress and intensify regulatory pressure on the crypto industry.

Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs the exchange but remains a shareholder, said on X on Thursday evening that the platform may have been hacked. User funds remain safe, he said.

The Binance founder’s post followed unconfirmed reports that more than $2 billion in cryptocurrency had been transferred out of wallets on the exchange.

A Binance spokesperson said the company was aware of reports of a potential security issue and was actively investigating. “At this stage, we have not confirmed any impact to user funds. Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information,” the spokesperson told Bloomberg. Binance has maintained an emergency insurance and reserve fund, SAFU, since 2018 to address such situations. The fund is generally kept at around $1 billion.

Meanwhile, the two largest stablecoin issuers, Tether and Circle, stated that they had taken steps to freeze their cryptocurrencies on Binance. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X that the company had frozen more than $1.5 billion in stablecoins in connection with the potential Binance hack. Circle Internet Group CEO Jeremy Allaire said the company had frozen $800 million in stablecoins following reports of a potential exploit involving Binance.

“Hot wallets getting drained is not something new to crypto, but the amount would be a meaningful hack on the largest crypto exchange,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart. “It’s definitely a bad look. And this is one after another.”

Exchange thefts and malfeasance have accompanied the crypto industry’s almost two-decade history and have at times triggered prolonged market downturns. The most prominent example remains the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange in November 2022. One of the most notorious hacks was the 2011 attack on Japan-based exchange Mt. Gox, which subsequently went bankrupt. In February 2025, hackers stole around $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency from Bybit.

“It’s a huge damage to crypto because of the consistent successful hacks in the space,” said Tian Zeng, CEO of crypto hedge fund Third Eye. “The fact that exploits keep happening makes it dangerous in the age of newest AI models being released every two weeks.”