NEW YORK – Cryptocurrency platform Binance said on Oct 29 it had fallen victim to a major hack and indicated that more than US$2.5 billion (S$3.2 billion) in funds had been frozen in an effort to prevent a massive theft.

The company – the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volumes – posted a series of sometimes contradictory messages on X, insisting that “user funds are completely safe” but also saying it would “cover all losses”.

The scope of the heist was not immediately known, but blockchain analytics company Chainalysis said its “current estimate on amount stolen is approximately US$5.912 billion at time of theft”.

That would be almost four times the amount stolen in what has been the biggest-ever…