Binance customers withdraw over $4bn after record hack - The Independent
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.
Binance customers have withdrawn over $4.6bn from the cryptocurrency exchange in a matter of hours after it reopened following Thursday’s record $6.4bn hack.
Over $4.65 billion in withdrawals were processed between 6am and 3.30pm UTC on 1 November, with $1bn in deposits made during that period, the crypto exchange firm said in a post on X.
This is just over 2 per cent of the platform’s $171 billion in total assets estimated as of 28 October, it said.
It comes after Binance was targeted by a suspected North Korean cyberattack, with hackers stealing billions in cryptocurrency in a matter of minutes. Experts say it was the biggest crypto heist in history. Binance immediately froze trading, promising it would cover all losses from company funds and allow clients to trade again within days.
The firm resumed withdrawals in phases on Sunday, prioritising about two dozen major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“Between 6.00am and 3.30pm UTC on 1 November, we processed $4.649 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits, resulting in a net outflow of approximately $3.64 billion,” Binance said.
“We are taking a phased approach by prioritising tokens based on the past week's data of user demand, so that each network and asset pair can be restored carefully, with stability and security checks completed before access is reopened.
“After an initial spike, withdrawal volumes have declined and are stabilising as expected, while deposit volumes have remained substantial,” the crypto exchange said, adding that its team “continues testing rigorously the remaining networks and assets”.
Immediately following the hack, Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals from the platform for 48 hours, as a precaution while its teams worked to “contain the loss, assess its impact, restore affected services, and complete security checks”.
“Our priority was to protect users, safeguard the platform, and complete the necessary security checks before restoring services,” the firm said.
So far, 95 per cent of the $6.3 billion in crypto tokens stolen from the platform on Thursday have been recovered, it said.
It may take longer to source the remaining 5 per cent of stolen cryptocurrencies as they are less liquid, Binance said late on Saturday.
The firm said it would absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds and will not let the losses pass on to users.
On Saturday the FBI linked the cyberattack to the North Korean state-sponsored hacking network TraderTraitor.
“The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) was responsible for the theft of more than $6 billion USD in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance on or about 29 October 2026,” the FBI said in a statement.
“The FBI refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as ‘TraderTraitor’,” it said.
Members of the network were observed converting stolen assets into the cryptocurrency Ethereum, the US agency said, adding that it expects "further laundering" of the stolen cryptocurrencies.
