Binance's Record $6.3B Hack

Your assets are safe this time. But look at why that’s true.

Binance lost billions from its own wallets. Within hours, the companies that issue the big stablecoins — Tether, Circle, Ripple and others — froze roughly $3 billion of the stolen money, and Arbitrum’s security council locked another chunk. No court order. A handful of phone calls.

Those companies can freeze the dollars they issue in any wallet, anywhere, at will. That’s the button that rescued Binance’s customers — and the same button that could freeze you tomorrow, for any reason.

Nobody could freeze the rest. The bitcoin and ether the thieves took — nearly $3 billion of it — is still moving, because nobody holds a button for it.

One theft, two kinds of money. The kind that was rescued was never fully yours. The kind that was really yours couldn’t be rescued.