Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced that it has now fully covered all assets affected by the security incident that occurred on October 29. The exchange stated this in a post on November 12, with Binance co-founder Yi He echoing the confirmation by reposting the update with the caption “100%.”
Progress on Asset Recovery and Proof of Reserves
According to Binance, the company has completed replenishing all impacted assets and published a new Proof of Reserves snapshot. However, customers currently lack the ability to independently verify these claims. Binance stated users will be able to confirm their holdings against the reserve once a new zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) system is generated.
A zero-knowledge proof is a form of cryptographic verification that allows users to confirm their personal balances are fully backed in the exchange’s reserves without exposing other users’ data.
Mini dictionary: Zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) enables one party to prove to another that a statement is true, without revealing any additional information. In crypto exchanges, ZKPs can help users confirm that their individual balances are part of the proof of reserves without exposing the balances of others.
The Proof of Reserves page, as observed on November 13, displayed reserve ratios of 100.05% for bitcoin (BTC), 100.02% for ether (ETH), and 104.34% for Tether’s USDT stablecoin. These ratios show the relationship between assets in Binance’s onchain wallets and the total net account balances held by customers.
| Asset | Reserve Ratio | Binance Onchain Wallet Balance vs. Customer Balances |
|---|---|---|
| BTC | 100.05% | Fully backed |
| ETH | 100.02% | Fully backed |
| USDT | 104.34% | $1.06 billion surplus |
Details of the Security Incident
The replenishment follows Binance’s October 29 hack, which involved digital assets valued at approximately $6.34 billion. According to a previous recovery update published on November 2, Binance confirmed that it used its own funds to restore affected assets for the 10 tokens included in the October 31 snapshot. The company emphasized that it would not pass losses onto users.
In another update, Binance reported that around $2.85 billion of the stolen assets had been either frozen or intercepted, with this figure described as subject to ongoing verification.
Customer Verification Still Pending
While Binance claims that all impacted assets have been replenished, the timeline for customer verification remains unclear. Although a new Proof of Reserves snapshot was released, Binance did not specify when the related zero-knowledge proof would be ready. The November 2 post had estimated that generating the proof for the next snapshot, which was planned for November 4, would require 40 to 50 hours to complete.
Binance stated that after the next zero-knowledge proof is generated, users will be able to verify their assets are backed on at least a 1:1 basis, reaffirming the exchange’s commitment to full asset coverage in the wake of the incident.
