Binance resumes withdrawals after $6.3b hack, says 95% of losses covered

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it will gradually resume withdrawal services after hackers drained $6.3 billion from the platform in just 20 minutes. The phased restoration will begin with 10 major virtual assets, including bitcoin and ether.

Binance announced Sunday that it would prioritize withdrawals for the 10 leading cryptocurrencies, with the first phase set to begin between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. local time — or between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Korea time.

The 10 assets covered in the initial phase are bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), USD Coin (USDC), Ripple (XRP), USD1, RLUSD and Zcash (ZEC). Binance said user balances in these assets will be fully covered by the exchange's reserve holdings.

The hack occurred Thursday, when attackers exploited the system that approves withdrawal transactions, siphoning virtual assets over a 20-minute window. According to a Binance report, the hackers targeted the withdrawal approval system rather than stealing individual users' private keys directly.

Binance said it will not pass the losses on to users, instead drawing on its own funds and a user protection reserve to cover the damage. The exchange said it has secured reserve assets equivalent to about 95 percent of total losses, with 100 percent of the top 10 assets already covered. The remaining 5 percent involves lower-liquidity assets that will take more time to acquire on the open market.

"We are continuously purchasing the relevant virtual assets on public markets and over-the-counter markets to recover the remaining affected assets," Binance said, adding that it plans to release a detailed incident report once the investigation is complete.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has identified TraderTraitor, a hacking group linked to North Korea, as the perpetrator. The FBI said it detected signs that TraderTraitor converted stolen assets into ether. The bureau is conducting a joint investigation with the US Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation division.