Binance Customers Pull $4.6 Billion in Days After Record $6.3 Billion Hack
The exchange says net outflows were $3.64 billion, about 2.1% of its assets, and that it has already reimbursed roughly 95% of the stolen funds as the FBI traces the thieves to North Korea.
Customers of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, withdrew more than $4.6 billion after what security experts have called the largest digital-coin theft ever, according to figures the company published after reopening transactions on Sunday.
Binance said customers also deposited just over $1 billion once it resumed transactions for Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, leaving a net outflow of $3.64 billion. The exchange, which has more than 300 million users, said the withdrawn holdings equal 2.1% of its $171 billion in total assets.
Cybercriminals stole $6.3 billion in digital currency from the platform. The FBI has linked the thieves to North Korea and to a group known as TraderTraitor, which it also blamed for a February 2025 attack on the exchange Bybit that cost $1.5 billion. The bureau said Saturday that the group was converting most of the stolen assets into Ethereum to hide its tracks, and it urged private-sector companies to block transactions linked to addresses the group uses to launder the money.
Binance says it has frozen roughly $3 billion of the stolen assets. Freezing works because certain issuers of digital tokens can block transfers of their coins anywhere in the world, which limits how much of the haul the thieves can turn into cash.
The company has promised to cover the full losses with its own funds. By early Sunday it said it had reimbursed about 95% of the affected amount. Binance cofounder Yi He wrote on X early Monday that "Our top priority right now is to ensure the environment is secure." Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News.
The scale of the run on the exchange was large but contained. Withdrawals of $4.6 billion are a small share of Binance's assets, and the deposits that came back in the same period suggest many customers chose to stay. The test for the exchange is whether outflows continue now that more trading pairs are reopening, and whether regulators press for details about how attackers got into a platform that holds so much money.
For North Korea, the episode follows a pattern. U.S. officials have said for years that Pyongyang uses stolen crypto to help fund its weapons programs, and the Bybit theft in 2025 was then the largest on record. Binance's loss is more than four times as large. The FBI's public request for help blocking addresses is a sign of how hard recovery is once funds are moved across chains and exchanges.
