Binance brings in the FBI and Secret Service after a $6.3bn crypto heist
The exchange says $2.54bn is frozen and promises to make users whole, but a federal investigation may not keep to its timetable for reopening withdrawals.
Binance is working with the FBI and the US Secret Service after a $6.3bn crypto theft, a source says, which settles how the exchange is treating the episode: as a crime, not a technical fault or an internal transfer. That question was open when the first outflows appeared and nothing established that the exchange had been hacked.
The sums need care. The first on-chain data showed $2.77bn leaving Binance wallets across five blockchains, well short of the $6.3bn now cited. Against that, the recoveries are large. Tether froze $971m in USDT, and together with Circle the freezes came to about $1.8bn. Binance now says $2.54bn is frozen and that more may follow as it works with law enforcement.
The exchange has halted all deposits and withdrawals, a suspension far wider than the one first confined to Binance Alpha. It has pledged to cover losses and make users whole. Co-founder Yi He said withdrawals will resume within 48 hours, the first end point given since the halt.
That deadline is the weak point. A federal inquiry brings its own demands for evidence, and if gathering it collides with Binance's schedule for restoring access, the exchange may find it cannot keep its promise to customers. Yi He's timeline also leaves open how much of the money that left Binance's wallets comes back. The pledge to make users whole puts that risk on Binance's own balance sheet, and the freezes by Tether and Circle, not the promise, are what limit the damage so far.
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