LIVE: Binance suspends withdrawals amid massive crypto hack

Billions of dollars worth of digital assets left wallets controlled by the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, on Thursday afternoon New York time. Pending the success of any recovery efforts, the dollar value of missing assets tentatively rank Binance’s loss today among the largest heists in world history. Withdrawals that founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) would eventually characterize as a hack began no later than 4:30pm, with researchers identifying smaller, prior transactions by the alleged hacker(s) throughout the day. As illegitimate withdrawals continued, Binance began halting withdrawals sometime around 6pm, with an official pause announcement at 6:22pm .