By Lawrence Delevingne, Summer Zhen and Elizabeth Howcroft
BOSTON/SINGAPORE/PARIS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Binance, the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, worked on Friday to shore up public confidence after a record $6.3 billion hack of its platform, promising it would cover all losses from company funds and allow clients to trade again within days.
Cryptocurrency prices fell on news of the hack, which analysts blamed on North Korea and said could be the largest financial heist of all time. The publicly
traded stocks of crypto-related firms Coinbase, Strategy and Robinhood slid.
Binance said customer funds were safe and it is working with industry partners to freeze some of the affected assets, with about $3 billion located so far. It did not mention the status of the remaining $3.3 billion, but Binance co-CEO Yi He said in a post on X that $3 billion represented only about 2% of the company's total user assets and public reserves.
The exchange also said on Friday afternoon US eastern time that its technical team was targeting a resumption of withdrawal services within approximately 34 hours. Binance said it is conducting a full security review and plans an initial proof-of-reserves snapshot in 12 hours, with the results expected to be available by Monday.
Binance said it has set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses. The company has a $1 billion bitcoin reserve fund designed to protect customer assets in the event of security breaches, according to its website. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said on X that the company owned SpaceX shares worth more than $1 billion.
Binance's other co-CEO, Richard Teng, said in a post on X that the breach was a "complex attack" that was not carried out by one person and included a compromised laptop as well as malicious software designed to delete evidence of its activity as it went along, "making it more difficult for us to trace and investigate."
The hackers were able to manipulate a system used to approve transactions to move money out of a Binance-controlled, internet-connected so-called "hot" wallet in a way that did not pass through normal approval controls, Teng said.
"Rest assured that we are working nonstop to resolve this, to make the users whole, and live up to your trust," Teng wrote.
Crypto prices fell broadly but losses were contained.
Bitcoin hit a six-week low of $76,368, and ether fell more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178 before markets stabilized. Bitcoin last stood at $76,447 and ether at $2,226. Binance's BNB token was down about 6.4% over the past 24 hours at $696.
'LARGEST-KNOWN THEFT'
The incident adds to a string of crypto thefts. Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs.
"This incident is almost certainly the single-largest-known theft of any kind," British blockchain analysts Elliptic said.
The bulk of the Binance heist unfolded in around 20 minutes beginning late on Thursday and bore similarities to previous large attacks blamed on North Korea, according to US blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis.
TRM said the attackers were able to order Binance wallets to empty into hacker-controlled wallets, mirroring a 2025 heist at crypto exchange Bybit, which the FBI attributed to North Korea.
North Korea has for years used state-linked cyber units for espionage, financial theft and revenue, according to US and South Korean authorities as well as cybersecurity experts.
North Korea denies that. Its mission in Geneva and embassy in China did not respond to requests for comment.
TRUMP WEIGHS IN
US President Donald Trump, asked on Friday whether North Korean hackers were behind the theft, said he did not know but his administration is looking into it.
"It was a hack. That's the problem. You know the old-fashioned way when you used to sign a check, take it out. These are different. People never see the money anymore. So I've always felt it was a little bit dangerous," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if he thought any of the stolen funds could be retrieved. "But no, they (Binance) say they have it pretty much under control."
Binance is working with the FBI and the US Secret Service, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The FBI said it is "aware of the incident and is engaged with relevant public and private partners to understand the scope of the activity, evaluate potential impacts, and coordinate appropriate investigative steps."
The Secret Service said that its investigators "are working around the clock with our private-sector partners, including Circle, to identify, freeze, trace and recover funds stolen from Binance on Thursday."
Stablecoin issuer Tether said it froze nearly $1.57 billion in assets linked to the incident, while Circle froze more than $800 million.
Abu Dhabi's Financial Services Regulatory Authority, which issued Binance's main operating license, said it is "engaging closely with Binance and monitoring the incident." Abu Dhabi-backed investment group MGX declined to comment. It became a minority investor in Binance last year.
SECURITY IMPLICATIONS
Beyond the potential loss of assets, the security breach was likely to have wider ramifications for the crypto sector, which already was under pressure due to higher US interest rates and softer demand from exchange-traded fund buyers, analysts said.
"It may further dampen risk appetite and prompt investors to reassess the safety of assets held on centralized exchanges," said Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group.
Investor Michael Saylor, among bitcoin's most prominent supporters, said in a post on X that he expects Binance to "deliver" on ensuring no customers suffered losses.
"Our industry will learn from this incident, strengthen security and emerge stronger and more resilient," Saylor wrote on Friday.
335 MILLION REGISTERED USERS
Binance, which allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets, has 335 million registered users globally and had about $162.8 billion in assets under custody as of its 2025 annual report.
The heist at Binance drew a relatively measured response from crypto enthusiasts online.
On social media platform Reddit, discussions about the breach featured a mix of humor, confidence in the exchange's financial resources and questions about how such an enormous theft could have occurred.
The reaction stood in contrast to the panic surrounding the collapse of FTX in November 2022, when mounting doubts about the exchange's ability to repay customer funds triggered outrage online.
"Looking at all past data, we find that hot wallet hacks — even large ones — have historically not had a meaningful impact on future crypto returns," said Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management. "Investors tend to treat them as 'one-off events.'"
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook, Ankur Banerjee and Rae Wee in Singapore, Summer Zhen in Hong Kong, Rocky Swift in Tokyo, Niket Nishant, Vallari Srivastava and Anusha Shah in Bengaluru, Mrinmay Dey in Mexico City, Elizabeth Howcroft in Paris, Tom Wilson in London, AJ Vicens in Detroit, Suzanne McGee in Providence, and Lawrence Delevingne in Boston; Writing by Lawrence Delevingne, Scott Murdoch and Tom Westbrook. Editing by Stephen Coates, Mark Potter, Elisa Martinuzzi, Tommy Reggiori Wilkes, Megan Davies, Will Dunham and David Gaffen)
