Binance reopens withdrawals after record hack and says losses are covered
· BehindLines newsroom
Binance reopened part of its customer withdrawals on Sunday, 1 November, after a theft of about $6.3 billion in digital assets that has been described as the largest ever recorded in cryptocurrency. The attack took place around 29 October and hit the platform's hot wallets, the ones used for everyday payouts.
What Binance says it has repaid
On Saturday the company said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion of its own money to cover the losses. According to France 24 and CoinDesk, it says it has replaced about 95% of the stolen tokens; CNBC reports the 90% figure announced the day before. Binance stresses that this does not mean it has recovered that share from the attacker. According to CNBC, bitcoin, ether, tether, BNB and six other assets are backed 100%, while the remainder involves less liquid tokens that take longer to buy back. The money comes from the SAFU emergency fund, part of the futures insurance fund and the company treasury. According to France 24, Binance says the financial hit will fall on the company and not on its users.
A step-by-step reopening
The first phase of withdrawals, opened on Sunday, began with the bitcoin network, according to France 24. According to CNBC, ether and the BNB Smart Chain network followed; according to CoinDesk, this first phase covered bitcoin and assets on fifteen other chains. The most requested networks go first, and each network reopens only after stability and security checks, according to France 24.
The North Korea attribution
The FBI said on Saturday that North Korea was responsible for the theft. It links the attack to TraderTraitor, a Pyongyang-affiliated group that private investigators already suspected. According to the FBI, the funds are being converted into ether and are likely to pass through decentralized finance and instant swap services; it asks companies to block transactions tied to the addresses in use. According to France 24, US President Donald Trump answered on Saturday evening: "We don't know if it's North Korea." Binance first pointed to an engineer's laptop, then its co-CEO Richard Teng called the attack more complex, according to CNBC. CoinDesk says about $3 billion is immobilized, mostly stablecoins that their issuers can block. The exact method of intrusion remains unclear for now.