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Binance has resumed bitcoin withdrawals after covering 95% of the $6.3 billion stolen in the Binance hack, a day after the FBI blamed North Korea’s TraderTraitor unit for the October 29 attack. The exchange says it will bear the losses itself, with other withdrawals reopening in phases.
What happened in the Binance hack
The bulk of the theft unfolded in around 20 minutes late on Thursday, October 29, according to Reuters, citing blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis. TRM Labs put the total at about $6.36 billion in digital assets taken from Binance wallets across 10 blockchain networks, making it the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said the breach affected its hot-wallet infrastructure rather than thousands of individual customer accounts, and it has repeatedly said customers’ funds are safe. Crypto prices fell on Friday as the scale of the theft became clear, while Binance worked to reassure users and trace the stolen assets.
Why the FBI points to North Korea
The FBI said on Saturday, October 31, that the North Korean state-sponsored unit known as TraderTraitor was responsible for the attack. In its alert, the agency said it had observed members of the unit converting stolen assets into ether, the cryptocurrency linked to Ethereum, and that it expected further laundering through decentralised-finance and instant-swap services. The FBI said it is working with the US Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division to track the funds, and it urged exchanges, node operators and other digital-asset services to block transactions linked to addresses it associates with TraderTraitor. Blockchain analysts had already pointed to similarities with earlier large attacks blamed on North Korea, including the $1.5 billion theft from the Bybit platform in February 2025, which the FBI also attributed to TraderTraitor. Pyongyang has for years denied using state-linked cyber units for financial theft, and Reuters reported that its mission in Geneva and embassy in China did not respond to requests for comment. US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the United States was still not certain North Korea was involved, a reminder that the attribution rests on the FBI’s and analysts’ findings rather than a court judgment identifying individual perpetrators.
What Binance says about customer funds
Binance posted on its status page shortly after 0600 GMT on Sunday, November 1, that the planned withdrawals had begun. The first phase covers 15 cryptoassets, including bitcoin, ether, XRP and dogecoin, with other assets to follow in phases after security checks. The exchange said it had covered $6 billion of the stolen cryptocurrencies by using company money to buy replacement tokens, and that it had set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses. That money came from its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users, known as SAFU, a bitcoin reserve held to protect customers after security breaches, as well as some of its Futures Insurance Fund and its corporate treasury. Co-chief executive Yi He said on Saturday that 50% of SAFU funds would be used, while the company committed to replenishing the fund to about $1 billion. Binance also said it had been working with industry partners to freeze some of the affected assets, with about $3 billion located as of Friday, while TRM Labs put the frozen figure at roughly $2.7 billion through interventions by stablecoin issuers and blockchain security authorities.
What remains unresolved
The remaining 5% of the stolen tokens consists of assets that are less liquid and may take longer to source in the required amounts, according to Binance, so some withdrawals will reopen later than others. The company has not published a full technical account of the breach. In a preliminary assessment, Binance said the breach might be linked to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, and co-chief executive Richard Teng has described it as a complex attack involving malicious software designed to delete evidence of its activity, making it harder to trace and investigate. The episode also underlines how large crypto theft has become: researchers at TRM Labs cited by Reuters put the value stolen across nearly 150 attacks last year at $2.9 billion, a figure the Binance theft alone more than doubles. Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets, reported 335 million registered users globally and about $162.8 billion in assets under custody as of its 2025 annual report. For now, the immediate test is practical: whether phased withdrawals reopen smoothly, and whether the frozen assets and the FBI’s address list slow the laundering the agency has warned about.
Questions People Ask
How much was stolen in the Binance hack?
About $6.3 billion in tokens, according to Binance and blockchain analysts, making it the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. TRM Labs put the figure at about $6.36 billion across 10 blockchain networks.
Who does the FBI blame for the Binance hack?
The FBI said on October 31 that the North Korean state-sponsored unit TraderTraitor was responsible, and that it had observed the unit converting stolen assets into ether. Pyongyang has long denied using state-linked cyber units for financial theft.
Are Binance withdrawals open again?
Bitcoin withdrawals resumed on Sunday, November 1, in a phased reopening that first covers 15 cryptoassets, including bitcoin, ether, XRP and dogecoin. Less liquid assets will take longer to source, according to Binance.
Will Binance customers lose money from the hack?
Binance has said repeatedly that it will bear the financial impact itself rather than passing losses to customers, and that it has covered about 95% of the stolen amount with company funds. About $3 billion in affected assets had also been located with industry partners as of Friday, according to the exchange.
