Binance Launches “Withdraw Protection” as Crypto Wrench Attacks Surge 75% in 2025

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has rolled out a long-awaited security feature designed not to stop hackers — but to stop criminals armed with physical threats.

For years, the cryptocurrency industry has poured billions into defending against digital attackers: phishing scams, SIM card swaps, seed phrase theft, and elaborate social engineering campaigns. Yet one threat has stubbornly resisted every technological fix — the criminal who simply shows up at your door.

In the crypto community, this is darkly referred to as a “wrench attack,” a nod to the blunt idea that even the most airtight digital security can be defeated by someone threatening bodily harm. Now, Binance is fighting back with a new tool built specifically to neutralize that threat.

On May 4, 2026, Binance officially announced the rollout of Withdraw Protection, a user-controlled feature that allows account holders to lock all on-chain withdrawals from their Binance accounts for a set period — anywhere from one to seven days. The lock period is user-defined between one and seven days, during which assets cannot be withdrawn from the exchange. Once activated, no one can move funds out of the account — not even the account owner themselves.