Rumors that Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a multi-billion dollar hack have caused the cryptocurrency market to plummet and led to emergency asset freeze measures.

A Binance spokesperson announced on the 30th local time, "We are aware of reports regarding a potential security issue and are investigating," adding, "At this stage, no impact on user funds has been confirmed, and we will share updates through official channels as soon as they become available."

Binance subsequently announced that it had temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals as a precautionary measure.

Major stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle took immediate steps to freeze their respective stablecoins on the Binance exchange.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated via X that over 1.5 billion dollars worth of Tether had been frozen, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire also stated that 800 million dollars worth of coins were frozen following reports that vulnerabilities at Binance had been exploited.

Binance stated that the currently confirmed frozen amount is approximately 3 billion dollars.

Investing.com reported that cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode stated approximately 5.3 billion dollars (approx. 7.1 trillion won) in assets were withdrawn due to this hack.

Glassnode explained that by asset, this included 1.66 billion dollars worth of Tether (USDT), 17,985 bitcoins (worth approximately 1.45 billion dollars), and 763 million dollars worth of Circle (USDC).

Investing.com also reported that other smaller altcoins were leaked, adding that if these figures are confirmed, it would be the largest outflow event in the history of the cryptocurrency industry, while a Binance spokesperson maintained the stance that user assets are secure.

Binance has been operating an insurance fund worth approximately 1 billion dollars known as SAFU since 2018 to protect users' assets in extreme situations.

Bitcoin plummeted by around 4% on this day, dropping to 78,516 dollars per coin, its lowest level in a month.

"Hot wallet thefts are not new in the crypto market, but given the scale at a world-class exchange, this is very serious," said Jamie Saettele of Bloomberg Intelligence, expressing concern over the successive security incidents.

In particular, this incident occurred just ahead of an 11 billion dollar options expiry on the 30th and at a time when the Democratic Party's victory in the U.S. midterm elections raised the possibility of stricter regulations on the cryptocurrency industry, further amplifying market volatility.

Tian Zheng, CEO of crypto hedge fund Third Eye, warned Bloomberg that "constant hacks are a heavy blow to the crypto industry," adding, "At a time when new artificial intelligence (AI) models come out every two weeks, such continuous exposure to vulnerabilities is very dangerous."

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