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”.

“It does look like a hack on Binance,” said Binance’s former boss Changpeng Zhao, who remains a majority shareholder of the firm.

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 said the amount of funds frozen may continue to increase as its teams work closely with law enforcement and other partners to trace and seize additional assets.

“We are working around the clock and will share a full post-mortem once the investigation is complete. Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates,” the firm said, adding that users’ funds are safe.

Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes.

Bitcoin dropped by around 5% following the alerts. The price of other major cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and Solana also fell sharply.

Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire said his firm is “closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance” and that his company has frozen more than $800m in assets linked to the incident.

Circle is the issuer and co-creator of the USDC, one of the world’s largest US dollar-backed cryptocurrencies.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said his firm has frozen around $1.6bn “related to a potential Binance exchange hack.”

“Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority,” said Ardoino, whose company issues a cryptocurrency known as USDT.

Several crypto industry observers had flagged concerns about a potential hack on Binance hours before the exchange confirmed the attack.

The scale of the attack is still unclear.

In 2025, hackers stole $1.5bn in crypto from the Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit. The record-breaking incident has been attributed to hackers linked with North Korea.