02-11-2026
Binance customers withdrew approximately $3.6 billion in assets on Sunday after the cryptocurrency exchange reopened following a cyberattack that affected $6.3 billion worth of digital assets. Binance had suspended transactions after the breach. The company said it processed $4.649 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits between 06:00 and 15:30 GMT, producing a net outflow of about $3.64 billion. It described an initial surge in withdrawals that later declined and stabilised. The outflow amounted to just over 2% of Binance’s $171 billion in assets under management.
Binance says it has covered around 95% of the stolen assets and has promised to cover the full financial impact. It says it has reserved more than $6.3 billion to address the consequences, using sources including its corporate treasury, futures insurance and emergency reserve funds. Withdrawals of more than two dozen major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, have resumed; other services are expected to return in stages after security checks.
The attack has been attributed to TraderTraitor, a North Korean cybercrime group also known as the Lazarus Group. The FBI published wallet addresses it linked to the group and urged industry partners to block related transactions. Binance said preliminary checks suggest the breach may have begun with an engineer’s compromised laptop, which enabled hackers to make unauthorised transactions. Binance’s global exchange was affected, but its US-facing platform said it was not.
A Chainalysis manager said funds connected to the hack were still being actively laundered, with attackers moving them across thousands of addresses and deposits. Binance and governments are working with Chainalysis to recover the stolen money. The article notes that the incident is believed to be the largest hack in history and places it in the context of the group’s earlier theft of $1.5 billion from Bybit in 2025.
Entities: Binance, Alec Zebrick, Chainalysis, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), North Korea • Tone: analytical • Sentiment: neutral • Intent: inform
02-11-2026
Binance reported $3.64 billion in net outflows on Nov. 1 after it began restoring withdrawals following a $6.3 billion hack. The exchange processed $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. UTC. The net outflows equaled 2.1% of Binance’s $171 billion in total assets, according to its latest available proof-of-reserves data, dated Oct. 28.
Binance said withdrawals initially surged but then declined and began stabilizing, while deposits remained substantial. It restored services in phases, starting at 6 a.m. UTC; by 12:36 p.m., withdrawals were available across all 15 networks and assets in the initial phase. Testing continued for the remaining networks and assets.
Circle said it activated its incident response procedures and coordinated with law enforcement to freeze more than $1.1 billion in USDC associated with the incident. The stablecoin issuer said the investigation was ongoing. That figure was higher than the more than $800 million Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire had reported frozen on Friday.
Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao sought to reassure customers, saying that “98% choose to stay!” He also said most outflows happened during the first couple of hours after withdrawals resumed. The FBI attributed the hack to North Korean hackers and identified the operation as TraderTraitor. Binance said it would absorb the financial impact rather than pass the losses on to users. The exchange reported that it had covered around 95% of the impacted amount, up from 90% in its previous update, and said the remaining 5% involved less liquid tokens that would take longer to source.
Entities: Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Jeremy Allaire, Circle, FBI • Tone: analytical • Sentiment: negative • Intent: inform
02-11-2026
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, resumed customer withdrawals in phases on Sunday after a hack in which more than $6 billion in virtual assets was stolen. The company reported processing $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits between 0600 and 1530 GMT. The resulting net outflow of $3.64 billion represented about 2.1% of the assets Binance manages. The attack, described as possibly the biggest-ever cryptocurrency heist, had prompted Binance to suspend withdrawals and contributed to sharp declines in major cryptocurrency prices.
The FBI said North Korea was responsible, identifying the suspected perpetrators as TraderTraitor, a group linked to Pyongyang and believed to be part of the Lazarus Group. The FBI said it had observed the attackers converting stolen assets into Ethereum and warned that they might launder them through decentralised finance platforms and instant swap services. It urged private-sector entities to block transactions connected to the relevant addresses. TraderTraitor has also been blamed for a $1.5 billion theft from Bybit in February of the previous year. US President Donald Trump, however, said it was not yet known whether North Korea was responsible.
Binance said it had allocated more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the loss and had used those funds to buy tokens replenishing 90% of the stolen assets. It said the remaining 10% would take longer to source because those tokens were less liquid. Bitcoin fell nearly 5% after news of the hack, Ethereum nearly 6%, and Binance’s BNB token nearly 10%. The incident also renewed concerns about the potential for increasingly capable artificial intelligence to undermine cryptography and IT security. The scale of the theft highlighted North Korea’s suspected use of illicit funding channels despite extensive sanctions related to its nuclear and missile programmes.
Entities: Binance, Angela Barnes, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), North Korea, TraderTraitor • Tone: analytical • Sentiment: negative • Intent: inform
