Binance says customer holdings are now fully backed following the $6.3 billion hack, funded through the company's corporate treasury, its futures insurance fund and the SAFU fund. Withdrawals are expected to reopen Sunday, November 1, with Binance covering the entire loss itself.
Binance was hit by what the exchange itself has called the largest hack in crypto history on October 29, when an attacker drained wallets of assets worth $6.3 billion. The exchange has been clear throughout that it will absorb the entire loss itself, without affecting customers. Friday's update shows for the first time how that financing is put together, and confirms that withdrawals are on track to reopen Sunday, November 1.
According to Binance, customer holdings of bitcoin, ether, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC are now fully backed.
The remaining, less liquid tokens are being bought through public markets and OTC trades (over-the-counter, trading outside an exchange), working with industry partners, and may take somewhat longer to acquire in the required amounts.
Binance had already set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds, including $5 billion in the affected cryptocurrencies – separate from the roughly $3 billion partners have frozen. The replacement is funded through the company's corporate treasury and a portion of its futures insurance fund, while a partial deployment of the SAFU fund (Secure Asset Fund for Users, Binance's emergency reserve for user funds) is expected within the next 24 hours. Binance has committed to restoring the SAFU fund to about $1 billion.
– Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users, the exchange said in its update.
Binance still expects to reopen withdrawals Sunday, November 1. The exchange has published a new proof-of-reserves snapshot showing coverage ratios of 100% or more for the named tokens, taken at midnight UTC on October 31. Full cryptographic proof, which would let users independently verify that their balances are included in what the exchange says it owes them, is expected by November 3.
Binance CEO Richard Teng said Friday that investigators had found additional breach points beyond the initially suspected compromised employee laptop. US President Donald Trump addressed the hack, saying authorities "don't know" if North Korea was behind it, but that the government is looking into it. Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis have previously attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a hacking group linked to North Korea.
Sources: BBC, CNBC, CoinDesk
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