CZ: Binance May Have Been Hacked as Tether and Circle Freeze Over $2.3B in Stablecoins Breaking: Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said the exchange appeared to have been hacked but that user funds were safe. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company had frozen over 1.567 billion USDT linked to the potential hack, while Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle had frozen more than 800 million USDC associated with the incident in coordination with law enforcement. CZ thanked both companies and said that although he no longer manages Binance, he expects all user funds to be fully covered.