Binance says it has covered 90% of losses from $6.3 billion hack so far

Crypto exchange Binance ‌said ​on Saturday it has been able to replace 90% of the amount stolen after a record $6.3 billion hack of its platform, by using company money to buy ‌new tokens.

The remaining 10% consists of tokens that are less liquid, which means they may take longer to buy, it said in a statement posted on X. "We've now replenished 90% of the stolen assets, and we're committed to covering the ‌remaining 10%. Our users will not bear the financial impact of this incident," co-CEO Richard Teng said on ‌X on Saturday.

Crypto prices fell on Friday, while Binance — the world's biggest crypto exchange — sought to reassure customers that their funds were safe after losing more than $6 billion worth of crypto in a hack which analysts blamed on North Korea. Teng said on Friday 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.

After the hack, the exchange stopped ⁠allowing customers to withdraw their funds, but it said on Saturday it was still on track to re-open withdrawals on Sunday. Binance ​said it has set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds internally to cover the losses.

The money spent ⁠re-buying tokens came from using part of its $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 the company's own corporate treasury, it said on X. Binance also said it had taken a new snapshot of assets held on its ⁠platform as of 0000 GMT on October 31, as part of its proof-of-reserves process.

Users holding the 10 listed tokens — ⁠BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, ⁠USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD, and ZEC — would be able to verify that their assets were backed at a minimum 1:1 ratio once the full proof was available, it ‌said.