Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said it would resume withdrawals on Sunday after covering 95% of the $6.3 billion in tokens stolen from its platform in the world’s largest digital heist, which the FBI has tied to North Korea.
The exchange, founded in China, said the first phase of withdrawals would start between 0600 and 0900 GMT and cover 15 cryptoassets including bitcoin, ether, XRP, dogecoin and others.
Binance said on Sunday it had covered $6 billion of stolen
cryptocurrencies by using company money to buy replacement
tokens. The remaining 5% of stolen tokens consist of assets that
are less liquid and may take longer to source in the required
amounts, according to the exchange.
FBI TIES ATTACK TO NORTH KOREAN UNIT
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.
The FBI said on Saturday the North Korean state-sponsored
unit known as TraderTraitor was responsible for the attack.
Pyongyang has for years denied using state-linked cyber
units for espionage, financial theft and revenue. Its mission in
Geneva and embassy in China did not respond to requests for
comment.
Law enforcement observed members of the unit converting
stolen assets into the cryptocurrency ether, the FBI said in a
statement, adding that it expected “further laundering” of the
assets through the use of related technology.
Analysts had blamed North Korea and said the Binance theft
could be the largest financial heist of all time.
The bulk of the theft 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.
US President Donald Trump, however, said on Saturday that
the US was still not certain if North Korea was involved.
“We don’t know if it’s North Korea — but if it is, we’ll
talk to North Korea about it,” Trump told reporters on Saturday
in comments posted by a White House handle on X.
BINANCE VOWS TO BEAR FINANCIAL COSTS
Binance has been working with industry partners to freeze
some of the affected assets, with about $3 billion located as of
Friday, it said.
The exchange has repeatedly said it would bear the financial
impact of the funds stolen in the hack. It has set aside around
$6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses.
The money spent buying replacement tokens came from
Binance’s $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users( SAFU), a
bitcoin reserve it holds to protect customers in the event of
security breaches, as well as some of its Futures Insurance Fund
and its corporate treasury, it said on X.
Co-CEO Yi He said on Saturday that 50% of its SAFU funds
would be used, while the company committed to replenishing the
fund to about $1 billion.
Richard Teng, the other co-CEO, has said that the breach was
a “complex attack” involving a compromised laptop and malicious
software designed to delete evidence of its activity, making it
harder to trace and investigate.
Crypto prices fell on Friday, while Binance sought to
reassure customers that their funds were safe after the hack.
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.
Source: Khaleej Times