Circle freezes more than $800 million in USDC after $6.3 billion Binance breach

Stablecoin issuers immobilized over $2.5 billion combined as Circle shares slid and Bitcoin dropped toward $78,000 Circle froze more than $800 million in USDC after Binance suffered a security breach of approximately $6.3 billion on October 29, 2026. Circle’s own shareholders then took a hit, with the stock falling 5.6%. The incident is being described as the largest security breach in crypto exchange history. What happened and who froze what Binance reported that roughly $6.3 billion was affected by unauthorized withdrawals from its hot wallets. Hot wallets are the internet-connected accounts exchanges keep funded so customers can withdraw quickly. The exchange says it has already frozen about $3 billion of the affected assets on-chain. Stablecoin issuers filled part of that gap on their own. Circle froze more than $800 million in USDC tied to the incident, a figure later put at approximately $823 million. Tether went further, freezing more than $1.5 billion in USDT. Ripple froze approximately $200 million in its RLUSD stablecoin. World Liberty Financial froze roughly $27 million in USD1. Combined, the four issuers have immobilized more than $2.5 billion in funds linked to the bre...