Binance has recovered or replenished about 95% of the $6.3 billion in digital assets stolen during a major security breach last week. The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange is working to restore customer confidence after the incident, which affected Binance.com but not its separate US platform.
The company resumed withdrawals at 6 am UTC on Sunday, November 1, after temporarily suspending the service for security checks. Customers processed approximately $4.56 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits, resulting in net outflows of 2.1% of Binance's total assets of $171 billion.
Binance announced on October 29 that it was investigating a security incident after attackers gained access to systems used to authorize withdrawals. An initial investigation pointed to a compromised engineer's laptop, though Binance later identified additional breach points. The FBI has linked the attack to North Korea's TraderTraitor hacking group, though Binance has not officially attributed responsibility.
The exchange has set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover all customer losses, stating that 'Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users.' Recovery efforts included using part of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), futures insurance funds, and corporate treasury resources.
Following the hack, stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze more than $2.38 billion in assets linked to the incident. Tether accounted for nearly $1.57 billion and Circle more than $800 million, while Ripple separately froze approximately $200 million, according to Binance co-founder Yi He.