Binance Wallet Drain Tests Stablecoin Freezes and Pulls BNB, Bitcoin Lower

By Coinvote

Published October 30, 2026 - 07:21 UTC | 6 mins read

At least $5.57 billion left Binance-linked hot wallets on Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron, according to Decrypt's on-chain tally, while Tether and Circle froze about $1.8 billion. Binance has pledged to cover user losses, and outlets still disagree on the total.

Billions leave Binance hot wallets in a matter of hours

Crypto markets fell on Thursday after on-chain trackers flagged very large transfers out of wallets linked to Binance, the largest crypto exchange. Decrypt counted at least $5.57 billion leaving across three blockchains and described the event as an apparent breach. The money came from hot wallets, the internet-connected wallets an exchange uses to process customer withdrawals.

Binance first said only that it was aware of a potential security issue and was investigating. Bitcoin Magazine noted that the company had made no official confirmation of a breach at that point. By early Friday, Cointelegraph reported that Binance had pledged to cover all losses, had suspended deposits and withdrawals during security checks, and had raised its verified frozen-asset total to around $3 billion from an earlier $2.54 billion.

The Block added that Binance Co-CEO Yi He made the pledge to cover user losses. Its headline and summary also tie the episode to a drop in Bitcoin below $77,000 and a 7.1% fall in BNB.

How a delegated wallet may have become a sweeper

Decrypt laid out the most detailed technical timeline. According to Decrypt, an address funded via Tornado Cash, a mixer that obscures payment trails, filed an EIP-7702 delegation tied to a Binance hot wallet. That Ethereum feature allows a regular wallet to carry out the logic of a smart contract. Three minutes later, at 20:24 UTC, the first Ethereum transaction moved 167,464 ETH and 63 token transfers, including 1.615 billion USDT, to a brand-new address, according to Etherscan.

Odysseas Lamtzidi, founder of Phylax Systems, wrote on X that the delegation stays in place, so the delegated logic can approve subsequent transfers with no new signature from the wallet owner. Decrypt stressed that how the attacker obtained the required signature is still unknown.

Bitcoin Magazine, citing the researcher Spreek, also described a transfer made via a contract call that was reportedly paid for with Tornado Cash money. Neither outlet reports a confirmed cause, and Bitcoin Magazine said that neither Binance nor law enforcement had released a formal account.

The numbers reported so far

The headline totals differ by outlet and by method. These are the main figures as each source reported them.

Decrypt's tally: $3.51 billion on Ethereum, $1.44 billion in 18,270 Bitcoin and $630 million on Tron.
Bitcoin Magazine: some social media reports cited up to $5.8 billion, and Coinbase's Conor Grogan put the figure at $5.8 billion.
Blockaid, via Bitcoin Magazine: $3.3 billion in questionable withdrawals from Binance hot wallets on the Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche networks, which the firm said it was investigating.
Stablecoin freezes: about $1.8 billion according to Decrypt, and a range of $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion in Bitcoin Magazine.
Binance's own verified frozen total: around $3 billion, per Cointelegraph.
Previous record: the roughly $1.5 billion Bybit theft of February 2025, as cited by both Decrypt and Bitcoin Magazine.

Where the outlets' accounts diverge

The largest gap is the size of the loss. Decrypt's $5.57 billion is an on-chain count of assets that left Binance-linked wallets, and it says the true figure is likely higher. Bitcoin Magazine cites $5.8 billion from one researcher, but also reports a separate figure of about $3.55 billion in incoming transfers to a single unlabeled wallet. It adds that a separate estimate sets the loss actually realized at roughly 0.7% of what Binance customers hold, which is a different measure again.

The freeze figures also differ. Bitcoin Magazine quotes Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino as saying the company froze more than 1.567 billion USDT, and attributes the roughly $823 million Circle freeze to Changpeng Zhao. Decrypt puts Tether's freeze at 975.1 million USDT in the main receiving address. Its report on Circle's 823 million USDC freeze at 21:04 UTC is backed by a statement from CEO Jeremy Allaire, who said the freeze was coordinated with law enforcement.

The framing shifts with time. Decrypt and Bitcoin Magazine, published on Thursday, treat the incident as suspected and unconfirmed. Cointelegraph's updated version, from early Friday, calls it a hack and reports the loss-coverage pledge. Zhao, a former Binance CEO who remains a shareholder, wrote that in his view Binance had been hacked, and said he anticipates full coverage of customer funds.

Why the effects reach beyond one exchange

Stablecoin issuers have the ability to bar particular addresses from transferring their tokens, and this episode shows how quickly that tool can be used. Decrypt noted that the attacker was still moving funds, so the freezes cover only what had not yet been moved.

DeFi reacted as well. Cointelegraph reported that Aave halted fresh deposits and loans on the V3 and V4 markets run by its community, calling the step a safeguard. The protocol said its smart contracts were not hit and that withdrawals and loan repayments remained open. Bitcoin Magazine reported that Aave froze lending markets to stop the suspected attacker from borrowing. Cointelegraph put AAVE down 11.3% at $118.54 and UNI down 10.4% at $6.48.

Ethereum took the largest share of the reported outflow. DefiLlama puts Ethereum's DeFi total value locked at $43.29 billion, and CoinGecko shows ETH down 6.3% over seven days at $2,247. Teams building on Ethereum, including those listed among Coinvote's new Ethereum tokens, may want to review which of their treasury and liquidity addresses hold stablecoins that issuers can freeze.

Sentiment weakened too. Cointelegraph said the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index fell to 30, its lowest since Aug. 14. Decrypt noted that Monero rose about 6% to $637, and it compared that to the jump Monero posted after a $333 million Bitcoin theft in April 2025.

Market moves and what separates them

Price figures vary because the outlets measured at different times. Bitcoin Magazine reported Bitcoin at $78,800 after a slide that began after 4 p.m. ET. Cointelegraph, later, had it near $77,131 and BNB near $693. CoinGecko data at Coinvote's latest reading shows Bitcoin at $78,363, down 1.8% over 24 hours, and BNB at $713, down 5.0%.

The gap between BNB's 7.1% fall in The Block and the 5.0% reading from CoinGecko reflects the different measurement windows. None of the outlets say why prices moved by different amounts at different hours.

Open questions to watch

The first question is the final size of the loss. Decrypt says its tally is likely incomplete, and Bitcoin Magazine says other reports continue to revise totals. A formal account from Binance or law enforcement would settle which count is closest.

The second is the cause. Decrypt says the source of the signature behind the delegation remains unknown, and no outlet reports how the attacker obtained it. The third is whether withdrawals resume and whether Binance's cover pledge is carried out as described. Binance.US said it is not affected, and Bybit said its systems are operating normally.

Binance also told users to watch for scams and to disregard links, messages or requests for account details that do not come from official channels. That is a practical reminder for holders while the investigation continues.

Market snapshot

Asset	Price	24h	7d	Market cap
Bitcoin (BTC)	$78,363	-1.8%	-3.9%	$1.58 trillion
Ethereum (ETH)	$2,247	-2.6%	-6.3%	$274.56 billion
BNB (BNB)	$713	-5.0%	-3.5%	$93.81 billion
TRON (TRX)	$0.333992	+0.9%	+2.3%	$31.73 billion
Aave (AAVE)	$126	-2.8%	-14.9%	$1.94 billion

CoinGecko data as of 2026-10-30 (UTC); DeFi TVL from DefiLlama: Ethereum $43.29 billion.

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FAQ

How much was taken in the Binance hack?

Decrypt's on-chain tally counts at least $5.57 billion leaving Binance-linked wallets across Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron. Bitcoin Magazine cites up to $5.8 billion from one researcher and $3.3 billion from Blockaid, so the final figure is unsettled.

Will Binance users be reimbursed?

Cointelegraph and The Block reported that Binance pledged to cover all user losses from the incident. Binance had not released a formal account of the cause at the time of the reports.

How much has been frozen so far?

Tether and Circle froze about $1.8 billion in stablecoins, according to Decrypt, and Bitcoin Magazine gives a range up to $2.4 billion. Cointelegraph reported Binance's own verified frozen total at around $3 billion.