At least $5.57 billion in cryptocurrency has been drained from wallets linked to Binance across Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron in what appears to be a breach of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to an on-chain tally. Binance said it is aware of the issue and is investigating. If confirmed as a hack, it would be the biggest crypto hack on record.

Tether and Circle, the issuers of the dollar-pegged stablecoins USDT and USDC, have frozen roughly $1.8 billion worth of tokens in the main receiving wallet, though the attacker continues to move funds fast.

Binance has not confirmed that its exchange was hacked, but said it is aware of the "potential security issue and is actively investigating."

"We have not confirmed any impact to user funds," the company posted on X. "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."

Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are 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… pic.twitter.com/dN76yhzYM0

— Binance (@binance) October 29, 2026

Binance, founded in 2017, is the world's largest crypto exchange, where millions of people buy, sell and store their coins. The money came from its hot wallets — the internet-connected wallets exchanges use to process customer withdrawals — which typically hold only a portion of an exchange's assets, with the bulk kept in offline cold storage. Because hot wallets must stay online to serve withdrawals, they are the most exposed part of an exchange's infrastructure, and in past exchange breaches platforms have commonly paused withdrawals while security teams assess the damage and trace the flow of stolen funds.

The tally counts $3.51 billion on Ethereum, $1.44 billion in 18,270 Bitcoin and $630 million on Tron. The first Ethereum transaction, at 20:24 UTC, sent 167,464 ETH plus 63 token transfers to a brand-new address, including 1.615 billion USDT, a stablecoin built to always trade at $1, according to Etherscan.

Three minutes before that transfer, an address funded through Tornado Cash — a mixer that scrambles the trail of crypto payments and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2022 — submitted a delegation for a Binance hot wallet using EIP-7702, an Ethereum feature, introduced in the network's 2025 Pectra upgrade, that lets an ordinary wallet run smart-contract code.

"7702 lets a normal wallet execute delegated code. The delegation persists; that code can authorize later transfers without another signature from the wallet," Odysseas Lamtzidi, founder of Phylax Systems, wrote on X.

1/4 EIP-7702 can turn the wallet itself into the sweeper. A Binance-labeled wallet moved 167,464 ETH + 63 tokens, including 1.615B USDT, just 3m24s after a signed delegation was installed. This is bad. pic.twitter.com/zONu8cwW63

— Odysseus | phylax.systems (@odysseas_eth) October 29, 2026

How the attacker obtained the required signature remains unknown. Because a delegation of this kind persists until it is revoked, the answer is likely to anchor the forensic investigation — and the updates Binance has promised through its official channels.

Tether froze 975.1 million USDT in the main receiving address, and Circle, issuer of the rival stablecoin USDC, froze 823 million USDC in the same wallet at 21:04 UTC, bringing the total frozen to about $1.8 billion. Circle's intervention came 40 minutes after the first Ethereum transaction, a measure of how quickly stablecoin issuers can lock down stolen tokens once a receiving address is identified. Both issuers can block specific addresses from moving their tokens, and analysts estimated that roughly $800 million more could still be frozen — but the attacker is moving funds fast.

"Circle is closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance," Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire posted on X. "In coordination with law enforcement, we have frozen more than 800M USDC associated with the incident and will continue supporting the investigation."

Total on the hack is at least $5.57B across 3 chains (likely more) Tether has started freezing and this time even Circle acted and managed to freeze 800M in a single wallet. Total frozen: $1.8B Still $800M could be frozen, attacker is moving funds fast pic.twitter.com/IL6wBfZK2r

— Wazz (@WazzCrypto) October 29, 2026

Markets reacted swiftly. Bitcoin slid below $79,000, down about 2.6% in 24 hours, while BNB, Binance's own token, fell about 7% to roughly $699. Monero, a privacy coin that hides who sent what, rose about 6% to $637, echoing the jump of as much as 51% it posted after a $333 million Bitcoin theft in April 2025.

The scale would dwarf previous incidents. Binance lost 7,000 Bitcoin, worth about $40 million at the time, in a 2019 hack. The $5.57 billion tally would be more than triple the roughly $1.5 billion Bybit heist in February 2025, the previous record for a crypto theft. Attention now turns to whether Binance confirms any impact on user funds, whether the roughly $800 million in identified freezable tokens gets locked down, and how much of the total can be intercepted while it is still in motion.