Cryptoupdated 54m ago3 min read
Binance Taps Half Its SAFU Bitcoin After $6.3 Billion Hack, Publishes Proof Of Reserves
“Binance taps half its SAFU Bitcoin holdings, releases reserve proof”
“Binance has drawn on a reserve used to absorb losses from bankrupt futures positions”
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Binance covered about 90–95% of the $6.3 billion stolen assets. Binance tapped half of its SAFU Bitcoin holdings, about 7,499 BTC, and released reserve proof.
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SAFU used, proof released
Binance tapped half its SAFU Bitcoin holdings after a Thursday $6.3 billion hack, and the exchange said its publicly disclosed emergency Bitcoin wallet held about 7,500 BTC worth $583 million on Monday after a 7,499 BTC transfer on Saturday. Binance also said users could verify their balances against its Saturday proof-of-reserves snapshot after it completed the accompanying cryptographic proof, and the exchange said the snapshot showed customer holdings in 10 cryptocurrencies were backed at least 1:1. Binance said it planned to take another snapshot covering more tokens on Wednesday, with the accompanying proof expected to take another 40 to 50 hours to generate.
Binance’s SAFU policy set no deadline to replace funds used after hacks, and the policy stated, “If the fund’s market value falls below US $800 million due to BTC price fluctuations, Binance will rebalance the fund to restore its value to $1 billion,” it states. Binance began reopening withdrawals in phases on Sunday and said it had replenished approximately 95% of the affected assets, up from 90% a day earlier.
FBI blames North Korea
The FBI attributed the attack to North Korea on Saturday, identifying the hackers as TraderTraitor, and the theft was described as the largest in cryptocurrency history.
Binance resumed withdrawals in phases after it suspended withdrawals following the hack, and the exchange said it began restoring withdrawals in phases at 6:00 a.m. UTC on Sunday.
Binance said it continued buying the remaining, less-liquid tokens through market and over-the-counter transactions, while the remaining 5% consisted of assets that were harder to obtain due to low liquidity.
Binance said it used its corporate treasury, SAFU, and part of its futures insurance fund to cover the losses, and Binance also said it had pledged to absorb the losses without passing them on to customers.
U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday, “We don’t know if it’s North Korea - but if it is, we’ll talk to North Korea about it,” as the political reaction unfolded around the U.S. election on November 3.
What remains at risk
Binance said it had covered about $6 billion of the $6.3 billion stolen in a cyber breach, and the exchange said the remaining amount accounted for less than 10% and consisted of less liquid digital currencies. Binance allocated about $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses, and the exchange said it used company money to buy replacement tokens rather than passing the financial impact to users. Binance said it had identified about $3 billion of affected assets as of Friday for freezing by industry partners, and the exchange said about $3 billion in stolen assets frozen by industry partners was separate from Binance’s replacement funds.
Binance said its proof-of-reserves update would let holders of 10 listed digital currencies verify that their assets were backed at least a 1:1 ratio once full proof of reserves was available, and the ten currencies included Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, BNB, Solana, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD, and ZEC. Ryan Kirkley, CEO of Global Settlement Network, said Binance’s financial resilience was encouraging but stressed that “one should not confuse financial strength with operational security,” as the breach highlighted security risks for cryptocurrency exchanges.