Binance users withdraw $5B after North Korean hackers steal $6.3B in record crypto heist - Ynetnews

The theft occurred Thursday night, prompting Binance to immediately suspend withdrawals. Over the following days, the company worked to repair its platform and investigate how the hackers had penetrated its systems. On Sunday, Binance announced that it would gradually restore withdrawal services in stages.

According to data from blockchain analytics platform DefiLlama, users had withdrawn a net total of $4.9 billion by Monday morning since withdrawals reopened, equivalent to nearly 3% of the assets held on the exchange the day before the hack.

Withdrawal Process

Binance initially allowed customers to withdraw cryptocurrency tokens Sunday, followed by traditional currencies Monday, including U.S. dollars and United Arab Emirates dirhams. The company said it processed $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits during the first nine and a half hours after withdrawals resumed.

The company said its gradual approach was designed to ensure that "each network and asset pair is carefully restored, and stability and security checks are completed before access is reopened."

The first customers to regain access to their funds were holders of Ethereum, USDT and USDC on the Ethereum blockchain, along with holders of certain assets on BNB Smart Chain. Later that day, withdrawals also were enabled for other cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and Solana, each on its respective network.

Compensation and Investigation

Binance has pledged to compensate customers whose assets were stolen. The company has already established a fund covering 95% of the stolen assets, financed through its own revenue and an emergency reserve fund. It is purchasing the remaining 5% on the market, explaining that these are "less liquid" tokens that take longer to acquire in large quantities.

Resuming withdrawals is a significant milestone, but our work continues. We will continue strengthening our safeguards and completing the recovery process.

On Saturday, the FBI attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a hacking group linked to North Korea, and warned that the stolen assets would likely be converted into other cryptocurrencies and subsequently laundered. North Korean-linked hacking groups have become particularly active in cryptocurrency theft in recent years. Last year, the FBI attributed the theft of $1.5 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit to the same group.

Binance is working with law enforcement agencies and blockchain analytics companies to determine how the attack occurred and has promised to publish a report detailing its findings. The initial investigation indicated that one of the company's engineers had a laptop compromised by hackers. Binance later said investigators had identified additional points of intrusion into its systems.

The scale and speed of the theft have sent shock waves through the cryptocurrency industry, raising questions about the security of even the largest trading platforms. Following the attack, Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the company was rebuilding and reassessing its "entire infrastructure system" and conducting a "comprehensive company-wide security review."

The company now faces the challenge of restoring customer confidence while investigating one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts ever reported and ensuring that affected users recover their assets.