Binance replenishes 95% of assets lost in $6.3bn hack

Binance has replenished or recovered about 95% of the $6.3bn in digital assets stolen in a major security breach, as the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange works to restore confidence among customers.

The company resumed withdrawals at 6 am UTC on Sunday, November 1, after temporarily suspending the service during security checks, processing approximately $4.56bn in withdrawals and $1.01bn in deposits. Net outflows reached 2.1% of Binance's total assets of $171bn.

The company announced on October 29 that it was investigating a security incident after attackers gained access to systems used to authorize withdrawals. The breach affected Binance.com, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, while its separate US platform was not affected.

An initial investigation pointed to a compromised engineer's laptop, although Binance later said it had identified additional points of breach. The company has not attributed responsibility for the attack, which the FBI has linked to North Korea's TraderTraitor hacking group.

Binance said it has set aside more than $6.34bn in company funds to cover all customer losses. A statement issued at the weekend said that "Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users".

Meanwhile, its recovery efforts have included using part of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), futures insurance funds and corporate treasury resources.

Following the hack, stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle froze more than $2.38bn in assets linked to the incident. Tether accounted for nearly $1.57bn and Circle more than $800m. Ripple separately froze approximately $200m, according to Binance co-founder Yi He.

The incident is among the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record and has renewed scrutiny of the security of centralized trading platforms.