Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said on Oct. 29 that a security incident potentially linked to an engineer’s laptop had impacted $6.3 billion in crypto assets.

Binance said its initial investigation showed a hacker may have accessed a service container through an engineer’s compromised laptop and submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

Binance said it had coordinated with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with about $3 billion frozen on-chain so far.

“We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified,” it said in a statement on X.

Binance said user funds remained safe and pledged to cover all losses. The exchange said it temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals amid ongoing security checks. It also revoked authorization for the affected address in response to the incident.

“Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly. We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice,” it stated.

Binance co-founder Yi He said the exchange was improving its withdrawal services and expected services to resume within 48 hours.

“Deposits remain unaffected and continue to operate as normal,” she said in a post on X.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in a social media post that his company had frozen “more than 1.567B USDT related to a potential Binance exchange hack”. He said the company’s priority was to safeguard its partners and the industry.

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of financial technology company Circle, said the company had frozen more than 800 million USDC following the security incident at Binance.

“Circle is closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance,” Allaire said in a post on X, adding that Circle would continue to assist in the investigation.

Binance was co-founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He. In 2023, Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program at the exchange.

Zhao resigned and served a four-month prison sentence for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws. He was released from prison in 2024 and received a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump last year.

Commenting on the security incident, Zhao said on Oct. 29 that although he no longer manages the exchange, he remains a shareholder and expects users to fully recover their funds.

“User funds are safe! It does look like a hack on Binance,” he said in a social media post.

Zhao was the first person ever sentenced to prison time for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires U.S. financial institutions to know who their customers are, monitor transactions, and file reports of suspicious activity.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.