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Binance says it has replenished 98% of assets affected by incident

Binance says it has replenished 98% of assets affected by its $6.3 billion security incident, while low-liquidity tokens and reserve verification remain outstanding.

The eCrypto Desk

Binance says it has replenished 98% of assets affected by incident

After a security incident that Binance says affected about $6.3 billion in assets, the exchange says it has replenished 98% of those assets and set aside more than the amount needed to cover the full loss.

In its November 4 recovery update, Binance said the remaining 2% consists of tokens with low liquidity, which it expects will take longer to acquire. The exchange says it will obtain them through market and over-the-counter channels, where trades are negotiated directly between parties.

The update shifts the immediate focus from tracing affected assets to restoring them and showing users how reserves back account balances. Binance said it will cover the full amount of funds stolen, using its own funds, and has set aside more than 100% of the assets required. Those are Binance’s statements; the update does not provide a token-by-token breakdown of what remains to be replenished.

What remains to be replenished?

Binance says the outstanding tokens are difficult to source because they have low liquidity. In practical terms, buying them may take time if there are not enough sellers at prevailing prices. The exchange did not say which tokens make up the remaining 2%, give a completion date, or describe the expected cost of acquiring them.

The incident’s initial scale was described in an Associated Press report, which cited Binance’s estimate of about $6.3 billion in impact and roughly $3 billion frozen on-chain. Binance’s November 4 recovery update does not revise those figures; it reports the share of affected assets replenished. The exchange’s initial investigation had suggested that a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop may have allowed an attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance said it found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked.

When can users check the reserve figures?

Binance said it completed a new Proof of Reserves snapshot at 08:00 UTC+8 on November 4, expanding coverage from 10 tokens in the prior snapshot to 44. Proof of Reserves is a way for users to check whether reported exchange reserves cover customer balances. Binance said generating the full zero-knowledge proof—a cryptographic method for verifying information without revealing underlying data—was expected to take 50 to 60 hours.

Once generated, users holding any token included in the snapshot will be able to independently check whether their balances are backed at a ratio of at least 1:1, according to Binance. The exchange also said it was working to restore withdrawal services and strengthen security measures, but gave no completion time in the November 4 update. The next milestones to watch are publication of the complete reserve proof and Binance’s progress acquiring the remaining low-liquidity tokens.

Sources