Polymarket halts trading after security incident; Binance hit

· Cybersecurity · United States

Polymarket temporarily halted trading on its international platform on Thursday because of a security incident that compromised a third-party provider, the company said. Trading was paused for about an hour, and some user funds were stolen by hackers, with the exchange referring the matter to UK authorities. The outage came just days before the platform expects heightened trading during the US midterm elections. Separately, Tether and Circle froze $2.38 billion after Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, reported a potential security issue; Binance said it was investigating and that funds were "completely safe".

Why it matters：Attacks on prediction markets and major exchanges just before a high-stakes election highlight the fragility of crypto infrastructure and its links to real-world political events.

Key points

  • Polymarket paused international trading for about an hour.
  • Some user funds were stolen; the matter was referred to UK authorities.
  • Tether and Circle froze $2.38 billion after Binance reported an issue.

Sources (original reporting)

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