Binance recovers 98% of hack losses, restores withdrawals on 62 tokens

Binance announced substantial progress in its recovery efforts following the high-profile October 29 breach that targeted its hot wallet infrastructure. The global cryptocurrency exchange stated that it has replenished approximately 98% of affected users’ asset value after the incident, which saw a significant amount of digital assets compromised.

Restoration of Withdrawals and Asset Coverage

On November 5, Binance published its eighth update since the breach, confirming that users can now access nearly all their previously frozen funds. As part of the recovery plan, Binance has resumed withdrawals for 69 network-asset pairs, encompassing 62 different tokens across six major blockchains. These blockchains include Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, TRON, Polygon, and Sui.

Ethereum leads the list, accounting for 36 of the assets. BNB Chain follows with 24, while Base supports 4, TRON 3, and both Polygon and Sui cover one asset each.

Withdrawals began reopening in phases, starting at 04:00 UTC on November 5, with Binance prioritizing assets according to user demand over the past week. The company noted that each withdrawal pair is subject to ongoing security and operational checks. Binance cautioned users that certain tokens might not be immediately available and that high demand could cause temporary delays in processing.

Binance emphasized that user asset safety is its top priority, stating that “all losses will be covered by corporate funds, including the Secure Asset Fund for Users, Futures Insurance Fund, and corporate treasury reserves. No losses will be passed on to retail customers.”

Binance, established in 2017, is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, offering a wide range of digital asset trading and financial services to millions of users globally.

Challenges in the Final Stage of Replenishment

The platform progressed steadily in its recovery, with replenishment rates rising from 90% on October 31, to 95% on November 1, and reaching 98% by November 4. However, the remaining 2% of assets consists of tokens with low liquidity that are more difficult to acquire without influencing their market prices. To address this, Binance is sourcing these tokens through open market purchases and over-the-counter transactions, a process it says may take additional time.

Binance detailed that acquiring less liquid tokens in large quantities could result in significant price volatility and slippage, further slowing the completion of the recovery process.

Mini dictionary: Over-the-counter (OTC) deals refer to trades conducted directly between parties, typically outside of public exchanges, often used for acquiring large amounts of assets without causing significant market price movements.

Expansion of Proof of Reserves and Industry Implications

In addition to the restoration efforts, Binance expanded its zero-knowledge Proof of Reserves (PoR) coverage from 10 to 44 tokens. With this enhancement, users can independently verify that their balances are fully backed, at a minimum of 1:1 against Binance’s holdings. The exchange estimates that generating the cryptographic proofs for these reserves will take 50 to 60 hours to complete.

Once the verification process is finished, all holders of the supported tokens will be able to confirm that Binance’s reserves meet or exceed its customer liabilities for those assets.

Reports from blockchain analytics firms suggested that attackers absconded with roughly $6.3 billion in assets across 10 blockchains within a span of 20 minutes during the October 29 attack.

Tether, Circle, and other leading stablecoin issuers collectively froze between $2.65 billion and $3 billion of the stolen funds, or about 42% of the total, as indicated by compliance and blockchain analytics. The remainder of the assets—such as 18,270 BTC and over 420,000 ETH—remain mostly untouched in wallets attributed to the perpetrators.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed the breach to TraderTraitor, a cybercriminal group linked to North Korea, according to law enforcement findings.

Binance’s swift asset replenishment and the rollout of expanded PoR measures aim to reassure users about the status of their funds and set a possible standard for reserve transparency among major exchanges going forward.