Binance hack rattles crypto markets as BNB falls 7%, Bitcoin slides

Cryptocurrency markets fell sharply Thursday as reports of a potential multibillion-dollar hack involving Binance wallets rattled investors, sending BNB down more than 7% and pushing the broader market lower.

The selloff coincided with reports of suspicious transfers involving Binance-linked wallets. Blockchain security firm Blockaid identified approximately $3.3 billion in suspicious transfers, while Arkham Intelligence tracked roughly $5.84 billion in assets held by wallets labeled “binance-hacker-1029,” though neither figure represents a confirmed theft amount.

BNB, the native token of BNB Chain, traded near $702, down 7.2% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data at the time of writing. Bitcoin fell 3.1% to about $78,674, while Ether dropped 4% to about $2,263. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization fell 3.3% to around $2.73 trillion, while 24-hour trading volume climbed nearly 29% to $89.4 billion.

Binance said it was investigating a potential security issue and that user funds were “completely safe.” Tether and Circle said they had frozen more than $2.3 billion in stablecoins associated with the incident.