UPDATED 05:49 UTC, 1 Nov: Binance now says about 95% of the impacted amount is covered, up from 90%, and that phase one of withdrawals reopens between 06:00 and 09:00 UTC on 1 Nov across 15 networks. Read more.

UPDATED 20:51 UTC, 31 Oct: Binance said at 16:15 UTC that its SAFU fund transfer is complete, pointing to a 7,499 BTC transaction. On mempool.space, that transfer left the SAFU address at 14:51 UTC (block 973,984) for the same address that received the 1 BTC test six minutes earlier. The SAFU address held about 7,500 BTC, roughly $581 million, at 20:50 UTC, by our read. Withdrawals had not resumed as of 20:51 UTC.

At a glance

  • Binance says it has now covered 90% of the assets stolen in this week’s hack, up from about 80% on Friday, and that BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC are “fully backed 100%”.
  • The exchange says it is still on track to reopen withdrawals on Sunday, 1 Nov, and expects a full zero-knowledge proof of reserves by Tuesday, 3 Nov (UTC).

Binance has covered 90% of the assets taken in the hack that halted its withdrawals on Thursday, the exchange said in a recovery update published at 14:24 UTC on Saturday.

In its previous update, at 19:33 UTC on Friday, Binance said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion of company funds and had covered about 80% of the loss. The new figure covers every one of the ten largest affected tokens, the company said.

The remaining 10% is made up of smaller tokens outside that list. “These assets are less liquid, which means they may take longer to source in the required amounts,” Binance said. It is buying them through market and over-the-counter (OTC) channels.

Where the money comes from

Binance named three sources: a partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), “expected to happen over the next 24 hours”; part of its futures insurance fund; and its own corporate treasury. “Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users,” the update said.

SAFU was set up in July 2018 and is held by Nest Clearing and Custody, a clearing house regulated in Abu Dhabi Global Market, according to Binance. The company said it will top the fund back up to about $1 billion afterwards.

The public SAFU bitcoin address held about 14,999 BTC, roughly $1.16 billion, at 14:46 UTC, according to a CryptoWatchDesk check on mempool.space. At 14:45 UTC it sent 1 BTC to another address, its first outgoing transfer since April 2024. Binance has not said what that transfer was.

The futures money is surplus above the level the insurance fund must hold, the company said. That fund covers losses from bankrupt positions, and Binance said the funds “remain above the coverage level required” under its risk framework.

Proof of reserves

Binance said it took a new proof-of-reserves snapshot at 00:00 UTC on 31 Oct, which is already on its reserves page. The full zero-knowledge proof, which lets users check their own balances are backed at least 1:1, takes about 40 to 50 hours to generate, the exchange said.

Context

Binance paused withdrawals on 29 Oct after the hack, which it put at about $6.3 billion. The theft has since fed the push for new US exchange rules in Washington.

Withdrawals had not resumed as of 14:55 UTC. Binance said it would “provide a further update as soon as details are confirmed” on Sunday’s restart.

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