Ripple froze about $200M in RLUSD linked to a potential exploit on Binance, which estimates total losses near $6.3B. Tether and Circle froze their own stablecoins in coordinated issuer action. Binance says user funds remain SAFU and withdrawals should resume within 48 hours.
Ripple's Senior Vice President of Stablecoins, Jack McDonald, confirmed on October 29 that the company is freezing RLUSD holdings linked to a potential exploit on Binance. CoinGape calls the incident the largest crypto security incident on record.
Issuers freeze funds after the Binance breach
On October 29, 2026, large unauthorized transfers left Binance-linked hot wallets, with estimates putting the total impact at roughly $6.3B. CoinGape says that makes it the biggest crypto theft ever recorded, surpassing even the $1.5B Bybit hack from 2025.
Binance attributed the breach to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop and said it found no evidence of a private-key leak. Other issuers of stablecoins moved quickly as well. Tether froze roughly $1.57B in USDT, while Circle locked over $800M in USDC.
Ripple then froze approximately $200M in RLUSD. Binance co-CEO Yi He acknowledged the move on X, confirming that user funds remain SAFU and that Binance will cover all losses through the SAFU fund and company reserves.
Why the RLUSD freeze matters
McDonald's post on X described Ripple as monitoring reports of a potential exploit involving Binance and the attackers' RLUSD holdings. He added that Ripple is coordinating with relevant parties and stands ready to support any investigation. Binance founder CZ also acknowledged the issuer freezes on X.
CoinGape says RLUSD's built-in freeze function is a deliberate institutional design choice, unlike ETH or BTC, which no issuer can freeze. According to the outlet, it limited attacker exit options and reduced the window for converting stolen holdings into untraceable assets on DEXs like Uniswap.
Weeks before the incident, Binance had expanded support for RLUSD through XRP rewards campaigns, helping push RLUSD's market cap past $2.4B. The report says Binance held meaningful RLUSD balances, which is why the freeze carried weight.
Binance outlines the recovery timeline
Binance has said withdrawal services are expected to resume within 48 hours. A full post-mortem and proof of reserves will follow remediation.
Source: CoinGape
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