Binance sees spike in withdrawals after $6.3b heist

November 2, 2026 11:27 | News

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Binance customers pulled $US3.64 billion ($A5.18 billion), or 2.1 per cent of its assets, as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange went back online after hackers the ‌FBI linked to North Korea stole billions from the platform.

Binance said withdrawals were stabilising after an initial spike and deposit volumes had remained “substantial”.

The exchange said it had now covered 95 per cent of the $US6.3 billion ($A9 billion) of stolen assets.

The heist, which analysts ‌believe may be the biggest financial robbery ever, adds to a string of recent crypto thefts.

Withdrawal levels are an early test of whether customers still trust the exchange with their money after the attack.

Binance began restoring withdrawals in phases at 06:00 UTC on November 1, 2026. By 12:36 UTC, withdrawals had resumed for all 15 networks and assets in the initial phase. After an initial spike, withdrawal volumes have declined and are stabilising as expected, while deposit volumes have remained substantial. Between 06:00 and 15:30 UTC on November 1, we processed $4.649 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits, resulting in a net outflow of approximately $3.64 billion. This represents 2.1% of our $171 billion in total assets under management (AUM), based on the latest available Proof of Reserves (PoR) data as of October 28, 2026. A new PoR snapshot was taken at 00:00 UTC on October 31, and zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) computation began. The updated report is expected to be available on our PoR website tomorrow. Our team continues testing rigorously the remaining networks and assets. We know how important safe and reliable access to your funds is and will share details of the next phase as soon as we can. Rest assured that market conditions are stable. Thank you for your patience and continued support.

— Binance (@binance) November 1, 2026

Attackers stole $US2.9 billion ($A4.1 billion) worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 incidents last ‌year, according to researchers at TRM Labs.

Crypto analytics platform DefiLlama said on its dashboard that outflows were higher, at $US5.81 billion ($A8.27 billion), up from the $US4.36 billion ($A6.20 billion) it showed earlier. Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the updated figures.

“This figure does not contain the flows we have deposited to our own new hot wallet, so they are not accurate. Our last update on X is closest to accurate (outstanding the moves in both deposits and withdrawals since it was posted),” a spokesperson for Binance said of the DefiLlama data.

Binance said the rollout for withdrawals would be carried out in phases, prioritising user demand. The first phase covered ‌15 tokens including bitcoin, ether and ‌those involving some USDC and USDT ⁠stablecoins and dogecoin.

“We are taking a phased approach by prioritising tokens based on the past week data of user demand,” Binance said in an earlier article posted on X.

Binance said it had covered $US6 billion ($A8.5 billion) of stolen cryptocurrencies by using company money to buy replacement tokens. The remaining five per cent of stolen tokens consist of less liquid assets and may take longer to source in the required amounts, it said.

The FBI said on Saturday the North Korean state-sponsored unit known as TraderTraitor was responsible for the attack.

AAP

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