Binance Hot Wallets Drained of $5.57 Billion in Suspected Record Hack; Tether, Circle Freeze $1.8 Billion

At least $5.57 billion in crypto has left wallets linked to Binance across three blockchains in what appears to be a breach of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, potentially the biggest crypto hack on record. Binance has not confirmed a hack but said it is investigating a "potential security issue" and has "not confirmed any impact to user funds." The tally includes $3.51 billion on Ethereum, 18,270 Bitcoin worth $1.44 billion, and $630 million on Tron, all from the exchange's internet-connected hot wallets. The first Ethereum transaction at 20:24 UTC moved 167,464 ETH plus 63 token transfers, including 1.615 billion USDT, to a new address. Three minutes earlier, an address funded through Tornado Cash submitted a delegation for a Binance hot wallet via EIP-7702. Tether froze 975.1 million USDT and Circle froze 823 million USDC in the main receiving wallet at 21:04 UTC, totaling about $1.8 billion. Bitcoin fell below $79,000, down 2.6% in 24 hours; BNB dropped about 7% to roughly $699; Monero rose about 6% to $637. The total would more than triple the roughly $1.5 billion Bybit heist in February 2025.