Binance hack: $2.8 billion frozen as Tether and Circle slam the doors

Almost $2.8 billion linked to the Oct. 30 Binance hot-wallet heist had been frozen by 11:30 a.m. ET on Nov. 3, according to tokenpost.com. Tether locked down more than 1.567 billion USDT, while Circle froze about $823 million in USDC, pushing the two stablecoin issuers past $2.39 billion combined. A freeze stops the money from moving — it does not put it back in Binance's wallet.

On Oct. 31, the FBI pinned the theft of more than $6 billion in virtual assets on TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group. The FBI, the U.S. Secret Service and the IRS Criminal Investigation division told crypto services to block transactions tied to over 600 Ethereum addresses, close to 20 on Bitcoin and one on Solana. Elliptic, Chainalysis, TRM Labs and SlowMist tracked the addresses and transfers, and Chainalysis tied some Binance-related funds to assets swiped from Bitget the month before.

Arbitrum's security committee shoved roughly $30.5 million from an attacker-controlled address into a restricted wallet — moving it again takes committee action or a DAO vote. Optimism governance pulled about $5 million out of an attacker address. Binance has asked for both pools back through governance proposals, a process that could drag on for weeks.

World Liberty Financial froze about $27 million in USD1 plus roughly $2 million in WLFI, Binance co-CEO Yi He said, with co-founder Zach Witkoff confirming the move. Aave halted new deposits and borrowing across hundreds of markets run by its DAO after the attacker parked about $60 million in USDT and borrowed 19,762 WETH, then worth $44.6 million. Withdrawals, repayments and liquidations stayed open, and that borrowed WETH remained in the attacker's control.

Coinbase offered to help block transfers into compromised wallets and reached out to Binance. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou pledged support and said the exchange's systems, trading and withdrawals were running normally. OKX CEO Star called for shared security standards and a coordinated response when exchanges get hit.

The unanswered question: whether assets sitting outside the freezes can still be intercepted as they slip through over-the-counter channels, mixing services and exchanges — and whether any of it gets recovered.