Crypto worth billions frozen after suspected Binance hack – BBC

Crypto worth billions frozen after suspected Binance hack  BBCBitcoin tumbles below $78,000, extending losses as Binance security scare rattles crypto markets  CNBCTether, Circle freeze $2.38 billion after Binance reports security incident  ReutersBinance Founder Says Exchange May Be Victim of Biggest-Ever Crypto Heist  WSJBinance probes possible $5.7 billion crypto hack, possibly the biggest in history  Axios

The firm has not said how much was potentially stolen but some crypto experts have put the figure at over $5bn. Cryptocurrency giant Binance said on Thursday that it has frozen digital assets worth around $3bn (£2.24bn) to prevent them from being stolen while it investigates a security issue. The company said as part of a series of alerts online that all deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while its teams conduct security checks and that the firm will "cover all losses". Two other major crypto platforms, Tether and Circle, said they have also frozen a total of about $2.4bn of assets in response to the potential Binance hack.

Binance has not said how much was potentially stolen but some crypto experts have put the figure at over $5bn. The security incident concerns Binance.com, while much smaller crypto platform Binance.US which provides trading services specifically for American residents, said its platform is not affected by the issue. "It does look like a hack," Binance's former boss Changpeng Zhao said on X. Zhao, who is also known as CZ, no longer manages the firm but remains a key shareholder. Glassnode, a digital asset advisory firm, estimated the hack concerns