Binance Says 90% of Stolen Assets Replenished After $6.3B Hack, Withdrawals Due Sunday

Binance says it has replaced 90 percent of the stolen assets from the $6.3 billion hack that hit its platform this week, the largest crypto theft on record. The exchange also says it is on track to reopen customer withdrawals on Sunday, November 1.

The figure was up from 80 percent a day earlier, according to Cointelegraph. The Verge reported that Binance’s CEO has also promised to cover the remaining 10 percent. Binance has framed the pledge as a simple principle: the company, not its users, will absorb the loss.

How Binance is replacing the stolen assets

A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph the money is coming from three places: the company’s corporate treasury, a partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), and a portion of its futures insurance fund. The spokesperson said the insurance fund would stay above required risk-management levels.

Several details remain unstated. The spokesperson did not say how much each source contributed, and did not disclose the insurance fund’s minimum required balance. Binance also did not say how much of the stolen crypto had actually been recovered, as opposed to replaced through purchases.

The final 10 percent is the hardest part. Binance says it consists of “less liquid” tokens, which are harder to buy quickly in large volumes. The company says it is acquiring them through a mix of market and over-the-counter trades, and it has acknowledged this could take longer. By its account, customer balances in Bitcoin, Ether and eight other assets are already fully backed.

What is still unverified

The claims come mainly from Binance itself, and outside verification has lagged. On Friday, Binance said it had set aside $6.34 billion to cover losses, including $5 billion in the affected cryptocurrencies. Security firm CertiK told Cointelegraph that day that it needed more information before it could verify that $5 billion figure.

Binance has since published a new reserves snapshot, but the full cryptographic proof is not ready. The exchange says the zero-knowledge proof takes roughly 40 to 50 hours to generate because of the computational workload. That timing means the complete proof may arrive only around or after the planned reopening of withdrawals.

The attack and the wider response

The theft happened Thursday. TRM Labs has since attributed it to TraderTraitor, a hacking group linked to North Korea. Cointelegraph’s coverage also notes that the FBI and Secret Service have joined the response.

Industry partners also froze some of the loot. Tether and Circle froze about $3 billion in affected assets after the attack, according to Cointelegraph. Those frozen funds are separate from Binance’s replacement of the stolen assets, so they do not count toward the 90 percent figure.

What to watch on Sunday

Binance says it will give a further update once details on the withdrawal reopening are confirmed. It has promised “measurable progress, transparent reporting, and concrete actions.” Sunday’s reopening will be the first real test of that promise. If withdrawals resume smoothly and the zero-knowledge proof backs up the reserve claims, the exchange can argue it contained the damage. If the proof is delayed or shows gaps, scrutiny of how Binance is funding the replacement of the stolen assets will only grow.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.