At a glance

  • Binance says it has completed coverage of the assets hit in the 29 Oct security incident, funded with more than $6.34 billion of company money, according to an announcement posted at 16:54 UTC on Thursday.
  • A new proof-of-reserves snapshot taken at 00:00 UTC on 12 Nov covers 198 tokens. Binance says users can check that their holdings are backed at least 1:1 once the zero-knowledge proof is generated, in roughly 40 to 50 hours.

Binance said it bought the affected tokens back through market and over-the-counter (OTC) channels, and shared the news on X at 16:49 UTC.

The money came from three places, the exchange said: part of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), the portion of its futures insurance fund above the level its risk framework requires, and its corporate treasury.

“Binance has committed to replenishing SAFU to return the fund to approximately US$1 billion,” the announcement said.

A few tokens that Binance no longer lists were also affected. Those will be handled under its delisting process, and holders will be covered, the exchange said.

Coverage, not recovery

Coverage means Binance has replaced the missing tokens from its own funds. It does not mean the stolen coins have come back. The announcement gives no figure for any recovered funds.

The exchange had said it covered about 90% on 31 Oct and about 95% on 1 Nov, after the $6.3 billion theft on 29 Oct drained its hot wallets. Binance later set out how a fake job interview led to the theft, and the FBI attributed the theft to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.

What users can check

The 12 Nov snapshot is on Binance’s proof-of-reserves page. Until the proof is generated, the 1:1 claim for the 198 tokens rests on Binance’s word. The first zero-knowledge proof, for ten tokens covered the 31 Oct snapshot and was completed on 2 Nov.

Withdrawals are still reopening in phases, with more details to come once confirmed, the exchange said. It did not give a date for the rest.

BNB was trading at $654.12 as of 20:52 UTC, down about 3.7% since the start of the UTC day, according to Kraken.

Next, watch for the zero-knowledge proof for the 198-token snapshot, which Binance expects to take about 40 to 50 hours to generate, and for the next withdrawal phase.

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This article is for information only and is not investment advice.