The cryptocurrency market came under heavy selling pressure on Friday after a suspected $6.3 billion security breach at Binance renewed concerns about exchange security and investor confidence. Bitcoin fell more than 3% over 24 hours to approximately $77,400 after briefly approaching $76,000. Ether, BNB, XRP and Solana recorded steeper declines as investors reassessed the risks associated with centralized trading platforms.

The incident prompted major stablecoin issuers to freeze billions of dollars in assets potentially connected to the attack. Standard Chartered also warned that cryptocurrency prices could face further declines while investigators determine the full extent of the breach.

Stablecoin Issuers Freeze Suspected Stolen Assets

Tether Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino said the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT associated with the suspected Binance incident. Circle Chief Executive Jeremy Allaire separately disclosed that the company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC in coordination with law enforcement authorities and would continue assisting investigators.

First Digital Chief Executive Vincent Chok confirmed that FDUSD stolen in the attack had also been frozen. The company said it was monitoring developments and coordinating with Binance to protect token holders and prevent the movement of stolen funds.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT estimated that more than $2.83 billion had been frozen across blockchain networks, primarily involving USDT and USDC. His investigation identified approximately 1,175.5 million USDT and 823 million USDC frozen at the attacker’s primary address.

Binance later said the verified total frozen amount was around $3 billion and that it was working with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets.

Update: The current verified total frozen amount is around $3 billion. Our teams continue to work closely with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and freeze additional assets. We will only share confirmed figures and will provide further updates as more verified information becomes available. User funds are safe.

— Binance (@binance) October 30, 2026

EIP-7702 Transaction Raises Security Questions

The suspected attack reportedly targeted Binance’s hot wallet, identified as Binance 14. Blockchain analysis indicated that the attacker submitted a transaction containing 50 EIP-7702 authorizations, with one successfully executed.

The authorization mechanism, introduced through Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade, allows externally owned wallets to delegate certain control functions to smart contracts. The attacker reportedly used the capability to associate the targeted wallet with an external contract, enabling unauthorized transfers.

Investigators suggested that multiple authorizations were submitted because the wallet’s transaction nonce was changing as withdrawals continued. One authorization succeeded, allowing the attacker to execute the operation. The incident highlights a security risk involving wallet-signing permissions: access to a wallet’s signing key could potentially allow attackers to redirect substantial balances through a single transaction.

Binance initially said withdrawals would resume after its security checks were completed.

Our team is conducting security checks. Withdrawals will resume as soon as the security issue is fully resolved. User funds remain safe. We’ll keep you updated. Thank you for your patience.

— Binance (@binance) October 29, 2026

Binance reportedly traced the incident to a compromised engineer’s laptop, which may have provided access to an internal service environment. The exchange said it had found no evidence of a private-key leak.

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group, based on its investigation. TRM Labs estimated that approximately $6.36 billion had been transferred from Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, with most of the movement occurring within about 20 minutes.

Binance co-founder Yi He indicated that the company would cover customer losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and corporate resources. Deposits and withdrawals remained suspended while the exchange conducted further security assessments.

Binance will cover all losses. As a precaution, all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement. We are working around the clock and will share a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete. Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates.

— Binance (@binance) October 30, 2026

In a subsequent update, Binance said the incident may have involved a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop that allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The exchange repeated that it had found no evidence of a wallet private-key leak and said it would publish a detailed technical post-mortem after the investigation and fact verification were complete.

Binance estimated the total impact at around $6.3 billion and said approximately $3 billion had been frozen on-chain. It said all losses would be covered by SAFU and company funds and that an updated Proof of Reserves would be published after remediation.

As immediate precautions, Binance said it had temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals, revoked the affected address authorization, and engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds. It also urged users to rely only on official Binance channels and directed customers to Binance Customer Support for further questions.

The exchange’s full statement was posted on X:

Binance and Polymarket Incidents Add to Market Pressure

Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, warned that the market could experience additional downside while uncertainty surrounding the incident persisted. He said investors might remain cautious until frozen assets were addressed and investigators provided greater clarity about the attack.

Security concerns at Binance coincided with developments at decentralized betting platform Polymarket, which reportedly suspended international trading after hackers stole more than $2.6 million from user accounts.

Binance later said deposits remained unaffected, while withdrawals continued to be paused as it overhauled the withdrawal service and related addresses. The exchange said it expected withdrawals to resume within 48 hours and that its security team was tracing the full attack path through the compromised computer, which might have been the incident’s entry point.

Service Update

Deposits remain unaffected and continue to operate as normal. Withdrawals remain paused while our team completes a security revamp of the withdrawal service and its related addresses. We expect to resume within 48 hours, and will update with further details.

The incident stems from multiple factors. Our security team is tracing the full attack path through the compromised computer which may be the entry point of the incident. A comprehensive report with the root cause will follow. We will continue to share updates through official Binance channels.

— Binance (@binance) October 30, 2026

Kendrick also suggested that the Binance incident could accelerate a longer-term shift toward decentralized exchanges. He maintained a bullish long-term outlook for Uniswap and retained his $100 UNI price target for 2030, arguing that security concerns surrounding centralized exchanges could encourage greater decentralized trading activity.

DeFi Tokens Also Decline

Despite the potential long-term benefits for decentralized trading platforms, their tokens also faced selling pressure. Uniswap’s UNI declined more than 3%, while Aster, Pump.fun’s PUMP, Jupiter’s JUP and Litentry’s LIT also traded lower.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE was a notable exception, gaining approximately 15% after Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a partnership with Trade.xyz to introduce Hyperliquid-powered perpetual futures trading in the United States, subject to regulatory approval.

Leveraged cryptocurrency traders meanwhile faced substantial losses. Total market liquidations reached approximately $1.5 billion, with long positions accounting for most of the damage. Bitcoin-related liquidations totaled $468 million, while Ether accounted for another $358 million.

For Ethereum, the attacker was reportedly left holding approximately 197,460 ETH, alongside borrowed wrapped Ether and smaller token balances. The remaining assets were estimated at roughly $600 million, although the full distribution of funds across networks remained under investigation.

The Binance incident could have broader implications for cryptocurrency exchange security, institutional confidence and the industry’s transition toward decentralized financial infrastructure. The immediate priority for Binance is to complete its investigation, strengthen internal security controls and restore normal deposits and withdrawals. The incident is also expected to increase scrutiny of wallet authorization procedures and transaction-signing infrastructure across the cryptocurrency industry. Developments to watch include Binance’s promised technical post-mortem, the updated Proof of Reserves after remediation, the restoration of withdrawals and the outcome of efforts to trace or freeze additional assets.