CZ says rival exchanges helped Binance through its breach

Crypto exchanges spend most of their time trying to steal each other’s customers. Lately, at least according to Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, they have been doing something less familiar: helping each other.

The Binance co-founder said competing exchanges stepped in to support one another despite years of rivalry. The comments follow a major security breach at Binance, where the exchange reported unauthorized withdrawals of approximately $6.3 billion on October 29–30, 2026.

Who showed up, and what they did

The most visible assist came from Coinbase. CEO Brian Armstrong publicly offered help within hours of the incident.

Coinbase also began blocking transactions headed to compromised addresses. Put simply, if stolen funds tried to pass through Coinbase, they were supposed to hit a wall.

Bybit’s Ben Zhou and OKX’s Star Xu also weighed in. Both stressed that the industry needs to act collectively on security standards.

The stablecoin issuers moved too. Tether froze approximately $971 million in assets tied to the hack, while Circle froze around $823 million.

Together, that is nearly $1.8 billion locked down. For context, that covers a meaningful chunk of the roughly $6.3 billion Binance said left its systems without authorization.

How Binance is covering the losses

CZ confirmed that Binance would make affected users whole. The exchange plans to draw on its Secure Asset Fund for Users, known as SAFU, along with excess reserves.

Those resources total $6.34 billion, according to CZ. That figure sits just above the estimated size of the breach, which leaves little room to spare but appears to cover the shortfall on paper.

CZ also praised outside partners for liquidity support during the crisis, including Thai firm GULF. He extended similar thanks for support around Binance’s earlier US settlement in 2023.

By early November 2026, Binance had started restoring operations. The exchange resumed withdrawals in phases rather than reopening the floodgates all at once.

Binance also said deposits exceeded withdrawals at certain points during that period.

Why the cooperation stands out

In 2025, CZ’s pardon bid faced resistance amid regulatory scrutiny, a period that did little to warm relations across the sector.

Binance’s 2023 US settlement also loomed over its relationships with competitors and regulators for years.

The logic is not purely altruistic, though. A breach at the world’s most prominent exchange affects confidence across the entire market.

What this means for exchanges and users

The immediate takeaway is that coordinated response tools now matter as much as prevention. Blocking addresses, freezing stablecoins and sharing threat information can shrink a thief’s haul after the fact. Nearly $1.8 billion frozen by two issuers shows how much leverage sits with stablecoin companies when they act quickly.

That leverage cuts both ways. The same freezing power that helped Binance here is a reminder that stablecoins like USDT and USDC are centrally controlled.

Key things to watch next: how quickly Binance completes its phased withdrawal reopening, whether the SAFU fund and reserves get replenished, and whether any of the frozen assets are recovered and returned. Also worth tracking is whether Coinbase, Bybit, OKX and others turn their public statements into concrete, shared security frameworks.