Tether, Circle freeze $2.38 billion after Binance reports security incident

Oct 29 (Reuters) - Circle and Tether on Thursday froze over $2.38 billion in stablecoin currency after Binance said it was actively investigating a potential security issue.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said in a post on X its teams were reviewing all relevant information with urgency and added that user funds were safe.

Crypto firm Ripple had frozen roughly $200 million, Binance co-founder Yi He said on X.

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer manages the company, wrote on X that the incident "looked like a hack".

Tether, which issues the world’s largest stablecoin, said it froze nearly $1.57 billion related to the hack, with Circle freezing over $800 million.

Circle, another stablecoin issuer, is closely tracking reports of a potential exploit involving Binance, its co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire wrote in a post on X, adding that it will continue supporting the investigation.

Binance has over 335 million registered global users, according to its website. Crypto exchanges such as Binance are platforms where people buy, sell or trade digital assets.

Binance.US, a separate cryptocurrency exchange, said it was not affected by the security incident.