Binance customers are set to regain access to withdrawals in stages after the exchange said it would absorb the losses from the theft and protect users’ holdings.
The FBI tied the $6.3 billion attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored unit.
The theft, described as the world’s largest digital heist, unfolded largely over around 20 minutes beginning late on Thursday. Binance then temporarily suspended withdrawals while its teams sought to contain the loss, assess its effect, restore services and complete security checks.
By Friday, the company had worked with industry partners to locate and freeze about $3 billion of the affected assets. Law enforcement observed TraderTraitor members converting stolen assets into ether.
Binance set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally for the losses and said it had replenished approximately 95% of the impacted amount, up from an initial 90%. The replacement purchases drew on its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users, known as Safu, a bitcoin reserve, as well as part of its Futures Insurance Fund and corporate treasury.
Yi He, Binance’s co-chief executive, said on Saturday that 50 percent of Safu funds would be used and committed the company to replenishing the fund to about $1 billion. The remaining 5% consists of less-liquid tokens, which take longer to obtain through market and over-the-counter purchases.
Binance began reopening withdrawals with BTC on the Bitcoin network on Nov. 1. It said the service would return in phases, with routes restored progressively rather than all at once. The first phase covers selected assets across 15 networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Solana. It also includes XRP and dogecoin, with the asset-and-network pairs chosen according to customer demand during the previous week.
Deposits remain open and were unaffected by the incident, Binance said. The company said customers would face no impact while it sources the remaining less-liquid tokens over time.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US was still uncertain whether North Korea was involved. Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to TRM Labs.
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