Binance says it has reserved over $6,340,000,000 after $6.3 billion theft

Binance said on 30 October that it had reserved more than $6,340,000,000 in company funds to address losses from the attack. That allocation is separate from recovering stolen assets or completing customer reimbursements. Hackers drained about $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from wallets Binance uses to process transactions, according to the exchange and expert analysis of blockchain records.

A Binance spokesperson said on Friday that 80% of the stolen assets had been secured, while the rest remained unaccounted for, the BBC reported. Securing assets is not the same as returning funds to customers.

Binance says investigation finds additional breach points

Binance initially thought an engineer’s laptop had been compromised, allowing unauthorized withdrawals. Co-CEO Richard Teng said the investigation had since uncovered additional breach points, without detailing them.

TRM Labs and Chainalysis, firms that analyze blockchain transactions, identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group, also known as TraderTraitor, as the suspected attacker. TRM Labs expressed high confidence in that assessment and cited similarities to an earlier attack on cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.

Teng said Binance’s own investigation had not yet identified the attackers. North Korea routinely denies involvement in cyberattacks and cryptocurrency thefts.

Frozen assets are not returned funds

Binance said on 30 October that $3 billion in assets had been frozen with help from industry partners. Freezing stolen tokens limits attackers' ability to turn them into cash, but does not mean the tokens will be returned to Binance, Reuters and France 24 said.

Teng said losses would be covered by Binance’s customer-protection fund and company resources. Binance also promised to verify all user funds publicly through its proof of reserves, a public accounting of the assets it holds.