Binance pauses withdrawals as hackers suspected of stealing billions in crypto
- ID
- 40963
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 30 Oct 2026, 6:27 AM
- Fetched
- 30 Oct 2026, 6:52 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/29/binance-pauses-withdrawals-as-hackers-suspected-of-stealing-billions-in-crypto/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 4.0
- Created
- 30 Oct 2026, 6:53 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
On October 29, 2026, Binance suspended withdrawals on multiple networks after users reported funds draining from its wallets, with spokesperson Ross O'Leary calling it a precautionary measure tied to a security incident. Crypto watchers say at least $2 billion left Binance's internet-connected hot wallets, with some estimates reaching $5.7 billion, while Circle froze about $800 million in Tether passing through its networks and Tether froze about $1.56 billion tied to the hack. Binance told TechCrunch user funds are "completely safe" and that it is investigating; former CEO and largest shareholder Changpeng Zhao said on X he expects funds to be "fully covered" without explaining why.
Why it matters
The only hard confirmed facts here are the multi-network withdrawal pause and roughly $2.36 billion frozen across Circle and Tether — the $2B to $5.7B loss range is explicitly unconfirmed and possibly ongoing. If any operating or treasury funds sit on a centralized exchange rather than self-custody, this is the moment to decide your exposure limit, because a withdrawal pause means your money is untouchable regardless of what the exchange says about safety. Note the article contains no Malaysia or Southeast Asia detail, so there is no local regulatory or payment-rail read to draw from it.
Discussion angle
Binance says user funds are "completely safe" while withdrawals are suspended on multiple networks — treat that as a case study in conflicting signals, and ask what concrete trigger (pause duration, unconfirmed loss figure, stablecoin freezes) would make you move treasury off an exchange, and whether your incident plan even lists 'exchange paused withdrawals' as a failure mode.