Binance is resuming crypto-currency withdrawals in phases following its security incident last week, with the exchange saying it has now covered approximately 95% of the impacted amount by using company resources.
This comes after hackers stole an estimated $6.3 billion in crypto-currency from the world's largest crypto-currency exchange, in what is described by experts as the biggest crypto theft on record.
In its recovery update, published on 1 November, the crypto-currency exchange says the first phase of withdrawals have resumed.
The restoration follows the temporary suspension of withdrawals while Binance worked to contain the incident, assess its impact and verify the security and operational readiness of affected services.
Deposit services remained open throughout the incident and were not affected.
“We are taking a phased approach by prioritising tokens based on the past week's data of user demand, so that each network and asset pair can be restored carefully, with stability and security checks completed before access is reopened,” says the company.
“Additional networks and assets will be added once they are ready. During the initial rollout, customers may encounter temporary delays and longer processing times because of traffic volumes,” it notes.
Binance has advised users whose withdrawals fail, to retry after a short period and consult the withdrawal page or its network status page to establish whether their selected asset and network are available.
Updates on the restoration process will also be communicated through Binance's official X account, it adds.
‘User funds remain safe’
Binance says it has replaced or bought back approximately 95% of the crypto-currency stolen during the security breach, using its own money rather than customer funds.
The remaining 5% still needs to be sourced, with the exchange saying these tokens are less liquid and therefore harder to obtain in large quantities.
Experts assume the replacement has been made possible through insurance.
The exchange maintains that customers will not be financially affected by the stolen funds, with the company taking responsibility for the losses.
“As we have said throughout this incident: user funds remain safe. Binance will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, not our users. Our commitment remains unchanged.”
Binance further confirmed that balances in Bitcoin, Ether, Tether, BNB, Solana, USD Coin, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and Zcash are fully backed.
Customers can verify the reserves through the exchange's proof-of-reserves website, which provides a snapshot of its holdings.
Georgy Kucherin, senior security researcher at Kaspersky GReAT, notes that employees of crypto exchanges, particularly technical specialists, remain as weak points in attacks aimed at stealing crypto-currency.
“Crypto-currency holders have increasingly become targets of malicious actors in recent years, with devices that lack security solutions being of particular interest to attackers.
“In practice, even technically proficient users can fall victim to these attacks. We therefore strongly recommend installing security solutions on both personal and corporate devices,” explains Kucherin.
The financial impact
The temporary withdrawal halt was introduced as a precaution while Binance investigated the breach and worked to limit its consequences.
The company says the decision was necessary to protect customers, secure its infrastructure and ensure affected services were safe to restore.
Binance says it will publish a post-incident report once the investigation has been completed, providing further details about the security incident.
“Resuming withdrawals is a major milestone, but our work continues. We will continue strengthening our safeguards, completing the recovery process, and providing updates as progress continues. Our commitment remains unchanged: Binance will bear the financial impact of the stolen funds.”
Binance also acknowledged the concern experienced by customers and the wider crypto-currency community during the suspension, thanking users and partners for their patience and continued support.
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