Binance is working to restore customer confidence after a $6.3 billion cryptocurrency theft, one of the largest security incidents in the industry’s history, as the exchange resumes withdrawals and uses its own reserves to cover the losses.
The exchange said on Sunday, November 1, that it had replaced approximately 95% of the stolen assets using company funds. Binance had previously committed more than $6.34 billion to cover the shortfall, including funds from its corporate treasury and insurance reserves.
The breach, which occurred on October 29, affected the exchange’s own wallets used to process transactions. Binance has maintained that customer balances would not be affected and pledged to bear the financial cost of the incident.
The immediate challenge is whether customers remain comfortable keeping their assets on the platform. Binance began reopening withdrawals for selected cryptocurrencies on Sunday, after temporarily suspending them while it carried out security checks.
Customers initially rushed to move their funds out. The exchange recorded more than $3.5 billion in net outflows on Sunday, according to data from crypto analytics platform DefiLlama cited by Reuters. Binance said withdrawal activity had spiked at the beginning but was subsequently declining toward normal levels. The company also said deposits remained significant.
The scale of the theft has raised broader questions about the security of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, which hold large amounts of digital assets on behalf of customers. The incident has also renewed concerns about the risks of keeping funds on trading platforms rather than in independently controlled wallets.
Binance has sought to reassure customers through its financial response. The company said it had secured more than $6.34 billion to restore affected balances, while industry partners had frozen approximately $3 billion in assets linked to the attack. The frozen funds are separate from Binance’s own reserves and may not all be recoverable.
The exchange’s response has drawn attention across the crypto industry. As CoinDesk reported, Binance already held about $5 billion in the affected tokens and was acquiring the remaining assets through public markets and over-the-counter transactions.
The attack also affected broader cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin fell to its lowest level since September 18, while crypto futures liquidations reached approximately $1.57 billion on October 30, as traders reacted to the breach and reduced their exposure to risk.
The FBI has attributed the attack to North Korea’s state-sponsored TraderTraitor group, according to Reuters. The investigation and efforts to trace the stolen assets remain ongoing.
For Binance, the incident is now as much a test of trust as it is a financial challenge. The exchange has promised to make customers whole, but the speed at which users resume depositing and holding assets on the platform will offer an early indication of whether that commitment has been enough to contain the damage to its reputation.