Key Takeaways
- Binance committed $6.34B in corporate funds to fully reimburse users after a historic $6B security breach.
- Industry partners like Tether and Circle froze $3B of the stolen assets to aid law enforcement recovery.
- The exchange is purchasing remaining impacted tokens via OTC markets to safely resume user withdrawals.
Binance Prepares to Restart Normal Operations
Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, is preparing to resume operations after one of the largest security incidents in the crypto industry’s history.
Less than 24 hours after the incident, the company said it is taking steps to make users whole after over $6 billion was lost in a security incident still being investigated, but that is already being linked by security researchers to North Korean hackers.
On social media channels, Binance reported that it had started “recovering affected assets for users and continues to work with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace, freeze and recover additional funds.”
Fulfilling its public promise to cover the losses after the security incident that sparked $1.5 billion in liquidations across the crypto market, Binance disclosed that it had reserved over $6.34 billion in company funds to this end.
“$5B of these funds are already held in the exact token assets that were impacted,” the company stressed, hinting at a rapid normalization of the exchange’s operations after withdrawals were halted for security purposes immediately after the incident.
Furthermore, Binance stressed that it was completing the purchase of other token assets through over-the-counter (OTC) and market channels to match the remaining assets that were impacted after the hack.
“This step can take longer because some tokens may have low liquidity and OTC settlement also takes time. We will share more progress as soon as we can,” Binance warned, without offering a specific timeline for resuming normal operations.
Binance highlighted that this number excluded assets frozen or protected by their issuers, with over $2.3 billion in stablecoins frozen by Tether and Circle.
“Currently, $3bn has been frozen, with thanks to our industry partners. We are working with partners and law enforcement to recover the frozen assets,” the company specified.
Binance confirmed that it will use company resources to cover its losses and will continue working to recover the assets lost, offering to update the public promptly when this happens and verify the exchange assets through its Proof of Reserves program.
“We will weather this storm. Thank you for the support,” Binance concluded.
