--- title: "Binance Investigates Suspected $5.57 Billion Drain Across Three Blockchains" description: "Tether and Circle froze roughly $1.8 billion in stablecoins after unauthorized outflows hit Binance-linked wallets on Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron." url: https://basisdesk.news/news/binance-suspected-exploit-billions-drained-tether-circle-freeze published: 2026-10-29T21:46:16.583Z modified: 2026-10-29T21:46:16.583Z section: Security & Hacks author: Basis Desk Newsroom (AI-generated, source-verified) sentiment: bearish tickers: [BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, BNB, XMR] tags: [binance, hacks, stablecoins, ethereum, tether, circle] license: Quote with attribution to Basis Desk (basisdesk.news). Not financial advice. --- # Binance Investigates Suspected $5.57 Billion Drain Across Three Blockchains Tether and Circle froze roughly $1.8 billion in stablecoins after unauthorized outflows hit Binance-linked wallets on Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron. ## At a glance - **What happened:** More than $5.57 billion left Binance hot wallets on Oct. 29, 2026, leading Tether and Circle to freeze $1.8 billion in tokens. - **Why it matters:** If confirmed, the exploit is the largest in crypto history, exceeding the previous record of $1.5 billion lost by Bybit. - **Who is affected:** Binance exchange operations, centralized stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, and broader crypto market participants. - **What's next:** Binance security teams are conducting an urgent review to confirm whether user funds were compromised. - **Primary source:** [Binance Drained of $5.5 Billion in Suspected Hack, Tether and Circle Freeze $1.8 Billion](https://decrypt.co/382191/binance-suspected-hack-5-billion-tether-circle-freeze-crypto) — decrypt.co ## Key points - Over $5.57 billion exited Binance hot wallets across Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron on Oct. 29, 2026. - Tether and Circle blacklisted roughly $1.8 billion in USDT and USDC sent to the primary receiver address. - The drain began minutes after an EIP-7702 delegation contract was executed using a Tornado Cash-funded address. ## Editorial remark - **Context:** The suspected breach follows prior major industry losses, including a $40 million drain from Binance in 2019 and a $1.5 billion exploit of Bybit in February 2025. - **Impact:** Binance customer balances remain under internal review, while centralized stablecoin issuers demonstrated unprecedented single-event blacklisting scale totaling $1.8 billion. - **Watch:** Binance's pending official post-investigation report and on-chain movements of the remaining unblocked $3.77 billion. More than $5.57 billion in digital assets departed Binance-linked hot wallets across three networks on Thursday in an apparent breach, prompting emergency asset freezes by major stablecoin issuers [1]. The exchange stated that it is actively investigating a "potential security issue" but has not yet confirmed an impact on customer balances [1]. If verified, the outflow would mark the largest exploit in cryptocurrency history, eclipsing the $1.5 billion theft from Bybit in February 2025 [1]. On-chain records show unauthorized outflows totaling $3.51 billion on Ethereum, $1.44 billion across 18,270 $BTC, and $630 million on Tron [1]. The primary Ethereum movement commenced at 20:24 UTC, transferring 167,464 $ETH alongside 63 secondary tokens, including 1.615 billion $USDT, to an unrecorded address [1]. Three minutes before the principal outflow, an address funded via Tornado Cash issued an EIP-7702 delegation targeting a Binance hot wallet [1]. Phylax Systems founder Odysseas Lamtzidi noted that the EIP-7702 mechanism permits standard accounts to execute delegated code that can approve future transactions without subsequent wallet signatures [1]. It remains unknown how the signature authorizing the initial delegation was obtained [1]. ## Issuers Blacklist $1.8 Billion in Tether and USD Coin Stablecoin operators intervened swiftly following the transfers. Tether blacklisted 975.1 million USDT in the recipient wallet, while Circle frozen 823 million $USDC at 21:04 UTC [1]. Circle Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Allaire stated on X that the company halted the tokens in coordination with law enforcement agencies and is assisting investigators [1]. Stablecoin issuers have previously taken targeted enforcement steps, similar to when [Tether froze nearly $550M in Iran-linked assets](https://basisdesk.news/news/tether-freezes-iran-linked-usdt-sanctions-treasury) during regulatory crackdowns. Following the reports, BNB declined roughly 7% to trade near $699, while privacy token Monero ($XMR) advanced 6% to $637 [1]. At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded at $79,245, down 2.3% over the prior 24 hours. Binance previously suffered a security incident in 2019 involving the loss of 7,000 Bitcoin [1]. The exchange said it will deliver further operational updates once internal security reviews verify the underlying cause [1]. ## Sources 1. [Binance Drained of $5.5 Billion in Suspected Hack, Tether and Circle Freeze $1.8 Billion](https://decrypt.co/382191/binance-suspected-hack-5-billion-tether-circle-freeze-crypto) — decrypt.co, 2026-10-29 --- Basis Desk Newsroom · AI-generated, source-verified · https://basisdesk.news/about/how-we-use-ai