Binance begins reimbursing users after $6.3 billion hack

Binance says it has set aside more than $6.34 billion of its own funds and begun restoring assets to users affected by the hack.

The allocation slightly exceeds the exchange’s estimated $6.3 billion impact. It excludes approximately $3 billion frozen with help from industry partners, since those assets still need to be recovered and verified.

Users will be reimbursed in the same tokens they lost. Binance says it already holds $5 billion of the replacement assets and is buying the remaining roughly $1.34 billion on exchanges and through over-the-counter transactions. Some purchases may take longer because certain tokens have limited liquidity and OTC trades take time to settle.

Deposits have continued operating, according to Binance. In an earlier October 30 update, the exchange said it remained on track to resume withdrawals within approximately 45 hours, with the exact timing to be confirmed separately.

Binance has also revised its account of the attack. As Durov’s Code previously reported, investigators initially pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop. The exchange now says it has uncovered additional entry points in a more complex attack. A single computer and one engineer’s permissions would not have been enough to move the funds in “one click.”

The company says it has found no evidence of wallet private keys being leaked, and outflows stopped when withdrawals were suspended. Binance has not named those responsible, although blockchain investigators have linked the attack to North Korean hackers. The exchange says it takes responsibility for the incident.

“We will weather this storm,” Binance said.

The company plans to publicly verify customer asset backing through its Proof of Reserves system and publish a full account of the attack and new security measures after the investigation. It is asking users to rely on official channels and avoid suspicious links or accounts posing as customer support.