Binance puts hack losses at about $6.3 billion, resumes deposits as Bitcoin slides

Attackers began draining several Binance hot wallets at around 20:05 UTC on 29 October. Early on-chain tallies cited by media pointed to more than $5.5 billion leaving wallets linked to the exchange across Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron. Other reports put outflows at up to $5.8 billion.

Tether and Circle froze about $1.79 billion in USDT and USDC soon after the transfers were spotted. Changpeng Zhao thanked both companies and said the anomalous transfers looked like a hack. Binance's later estimate puts the total impact at about $6.3 billion, of which roughly $3 billion is frozen onchain. The figures from different sources have not been fully reconciled.

Binance says deposits have resumed and that it plans to reopen withdrawals within 48 hours. Early reports differed on whether user funds were affected; while it investigated, the exchange initially described them as safe.

Markets reacted quickly. One report counted $628 million in crypto liquidations within an hour. Bitcoin dropped below $79,000 and at one point came near $76,300. BNB was reported down about 7%, and Circle shares fell about 5% in off-hours trading. One source noted that no direct causal link to the Bitcoin decline had been formally established.