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Tether and Circle freeze ~$2.4B in stablecoins tied to Binance's suspected hack
Tether froze over 1.567B USDT and Circle over 800M USDC linked to the suspected Binance breach, about $2.4B in total. The quick action limited the attacker's gains, but more than $1B, mostly ether, stayed out of reach. The episode adds pressure on BTC, ETH and BNB and renews debate on how much control stablecoin issuers have over user funds.
After billions of dollars left Binance hot wallets on October 29, Tether and Circle blacklisted the main receiving addresses within about an hour. Tether first froze around $971M in USDT, then raised the total to more than 1.567B. Circle froze about $823M in USDC, saying it acted in coordination with law enforcement.
On-chain trackers put the drained amount at over $5.5B across three blockchains. Binance later estimated the impact at about $6.3B and said roughly $3B has been frozen with help from issuers. That would make it the largest crypto hack on record, ahead of Bybit's $1.5B loss in 2025. Researchers suspect North Korea's Lazarus Group.
Not everything was caught. About 700M USDT moved out before Tether's blacklist took effect, and much of it was swapped into ether. The attacker has also been selling tokens that issuers cannot freeze, such as UNI and PEPE, on decentralized exchanges. Binance paused withdrawals on several networks and says user funds are safe; co-founder CZ expects full coverage of user losses.
Two readings: the freezes show stablecoins can sharply cut losses from hacks, which supports confidence in USDT and USDC. But they also remind holders that issuers can block any address, including self-custody wallets, if it receives flagged funds.
What to watch: when Binance resumes withdrawals, whether more stolen funds are recovered, how fast frozen tokens are returned, and whether regulators push for clearer rules on exchange security and issuer freeze powers.
Source: decrypt.co
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