Binance Customers Pull $3.64B After North Korean Hack
The exchange restored withdrawals on Sunday after covering 95% of the $6.3 billion stolen by the TraderTraitor unit.
By Andrew Yang ·
Binance customers withdrew $3.64 billion from the platform on Sunday, equal to 2.1% of its total assets. This outflow occurred as the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange returned online following a massive security breach. The company stated that deposit volumes remained substantial and that withdrawal activity began to stabilize after the initial surge.
The incident began late Thursday when hackers executed a theft that lasted approximately 20 minutes. The FBI identified the North Korean state-sponsored unit TraderTraitor as the responsible party on Saturday. Law enforcement observed the group converting stolen digital assets into ether. The agency expects further laundering through related technology.
Binance has covered 95% of the $6.3 billion in stolen assets. The exchange used company funds to purchase replacement tokens. The remaining 5% involves less liquid assets that may require more time to source. Binance said the net outflows reflect client activity as of 1530 GMT on Sunday.
The exchange is restoring withdrawals in phases based on user demand. The first phase includes 15 tokens, such as bitcoin, ether, dogecoin, and USDC and USDT stablecoins. A Binance spokesperson noted that external data from DefiLlama showed higher outflows at $4.36 billion. The company attributed the discrepancy to internal deposits to a new hot wallet that were not yet reflected in third-party dashboards.
President Trump commented on the attack on Saturday, stating that it remained unclear if North Korea was involved. He said the United States would speak to Pyongyang if the country was responsible. This remark followed the FBI's official attribution. Pyongyang has historically denied using cyber units for financial theft.
Binance co-CEO Yi He said on Saturday that the company would use 50% of its Secure Asset Fund for Users, or SAFU. The firm committed to replenishing the fund to approximately $1 billion. Co-CEO Richard Teng described the breach as a complex attack involving a compromised laptop and malicious software designed to erase traces of the intrusion.
The exchange set aside about $6.34 billion in corporate funds to cover the losses. It worked with other crypto firms to freeze about $3 billion of affected assets as of Friday. Binance reported $171 billion in total assets under management as of October 28. The platform serves 335 million registered users globally.
Founder Changpeng Zhao thanked US law enforcement agencies for their help in tracking and freezing stolen assets. Zhao, who was pardoned by Trump last year after a conviction for anti-money laundering violations, credited the agencies for stabilizing market confidence. He noted that their efforts helped prevent a larger drop in bitcoin prices.
