Binance pledges to compensate users for $6.3bn hack

Binance says it will reimburse users for losses estimated at $6.3bn following a security breach, after freezing about $3bn in crypto assets. The exchange’s initial inquiry traced the intrusion to a DevOps engineer’s compromised laptop, which allegedly enabled unauthorized withdrawal transactions through a service container.

Binance co-founder Yi He said deposits were not affected, while withdrawals could begin returning within 48 hours. The exchange suspended both services temporarily, revoked authorization for the affected address and is using its Secure Asset Fund for Users and company resources to compensate customers. It said no wallet private key leak had been identified, and plans to publish a technical report, updated Proof of Reserves and a post-mortem after remediation and verification. Circle Internet Group, Tether and Ripple also froze funds associated with the incident, according to Mettis Global.