Customers withdrew approximately $3.6 billion (£2.7 billion) from Binance after the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange suspended trading following a cyberattack that affected $6.3 billion in digital assets. The exchange is believed to have reopened on Sunday, while major agencies including the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) blamed North Korea for the attack, described as the biggest hack in history.
Binance said it had covered about 95% of the assets stolen in the latest breach, although obtaining the remaining assets could take longer. The company has repeatedly said it will cover any losses related to the attack.
In a post on X, Binance said that between 06:00 and 15:30 GMT on November 1, it processed $4.649 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits. That resulted in net outflows of approximately $3.64 billion.
The company said there was an “initial spike” in withdrawals, but added that activity had since declined and was “stabilizing as expected”. Binance said Sunday’s net withdrawals represented just over 2% of the $171 billion in assets it manages.
Binance announced last week that it had set aside more than $6.3 billion in funding to deal with the aftermath of the attack.
Withdrawals for more than 20 major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, have resumed, Binance said. Additional services will be reinstated gradually after security checks are completed.
Stolen funds continue to move
Alec Zebrick, senior manager of global services at Chainalysis, said money laundering linked to the Binance hack was continuing. He said Chainalysis was working with Binance and governments to help recover the stolen funds.
“We continue to see very active money laundering,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
“The attackers are piling these funds into thousands of addresses and thousands of deposits,” he added.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk