Binance Reopens Bitcoin Withdrawals in First Phase After Record $6.3B Hack

Binance reopens Bitcoin withdrawals in first phase after record $6.3B hack

Binance began reopening withdrawals on November 1, putting the Bitcoin network first in line two days after an October 29-30 breach Binance said drained roughly $6.3 billion from its hot wallets. The exchange said in a post on X that the “First batch network now opened in phase one of withdrawals is $BTC bitcoin network.”

Phase one ran between 06:00 and 09:00 UTC, and Binance kept adding networks through the morning. By 12:36 UTC the exchange listed 15 networks back online: BTC, ETH, BSC, XRP, Base, DOGE, OP (Optimism), Arbitrum, TRX, SOL, MATIC (Polygon), AVAXC, ZEC, TON and SUI. Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain assets, including USDC, USDT, ETH and BNB, came back mid-morning. The company said it ordered the restorations by recent user demand data, and that more assets and networks will follow in later phases as security checks are completed. Deposits were never suspended; withdrawals were shut immediately after the breach was detected.

Per Binance’s figures, the breach drained roughly $6.3 billion, the largest exchange hack on record, and is attributed by the FBI and blockchain analytics firms to TraderTraitor, a group connected to North Korea. Binance has said it replenished 90-95% of the stolen assets with company funds, including its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), and that partner exchanges froze around $3 billion of the stolen assets. The company also said users suffered no financial losses, a claim that has not been independently audited. Our desk covered the $6.34 billion set-aside and the FBI and Secret Service recovery effort on October 31.

Binance has scheduled a full proof-of-reserves update for November 2, the first hard check on whether user balances are whole.