Binance-hacker-1029 – $5.6B stolen from Binance

Commenters treated the reported $5.6 billion Binance theft as an alarming test of the exchange’s security, with some calling it an unprecedented-scale heist and questioning how such a large loss could happen. Several said Circle and Tether had frozen billions in USDC and USDT, while CZ reportedly expected customers to be made whole. They disagreed over the role of Binance’s roughly $1 billion SAFU fund: some assumed it should insure exchange losses, while another commenter said Binance could cover the incident from its own resources. Reports of other crypto security incidents added to concerns about vulnerable exchanges and hot wallets; one commenter urged users to choose large, regulated institutions, while others invoked “not your keys, not your coins.”

The freezes also prompted debate over crypto’s promise of transactions beyond any single authority’s control. Some saw stablecoin issuers’ ability to block funds - and the possibility of a blockchain rollback - as evidence that crypto remains subject to centralized power; others noted that freezing USDC or USDT differs from reversing Bitcoin transactions. Commenters wondered whether the attackers could launder or cash out any funds that escaped the freezes, with some arguing that stolen coins would be difficult to use and others warning that large rewards make exchanges irresistible targets. Some framed the incident as a crypto-wide crisis, while others expected Binance to absorb the loss.