Binance resumes withdrawals in phased manner

The exchange was hit by the theft on Thursday, which has since been described as the biggest heist in history, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit. Binance initially froze withdrawals as it investigated the breach, but on Sunday announced that it had begun a phased reopening after 2pm Singapore time.

In the first phase, people holding the ethereum, USDT and USDC tokens on the ethereum blockchain were able to withdraw their funds, as well as some others held on the BNB Smart Chain blockchain. Later on Sunday, dealing in the Dogecoin and Avalanche currencies resumed on their own platforms.

FBI attributes attack to North Korea-linked group

The FBI confirmed that North Korea was responsible for the attack. The agency said it had observed “TraderTraitor actors” converting stolen assets into ethereum, and expected those assets to be laundered further by converting them using decentralised finance and instant swap services. The FBI is urging private sector entities to block transactions with or derived from addresses used by the group to launder these stolen assets.

TraderTraitor is believed to be part of the Lazarus Group, which gained notoriety in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for The Interview, a film that mocked the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Binance covers 90% of losses with company funds

Binance said it had replenished 90% of the amount stolen. The remaining 10% of tokens were less liquid, meaning they may take longer to buy, the company said in a post on X on Saturday. Richard Teng, Binance’s co-chief executive, said separately that the company was “committed to covering the remaining 10%” and users would not bear the financial impact of the hack.

Binance said it had set aside about $6.34bn of company funds to cover the losses. “Our commitment remains the same: Binance will fully cover the financial impact of the funds stolen in this incident,” the company said. The money spent rebuying tokens came from using part of its $1bn secure asset fund for users, a bitcoin reserve it holds to protect customers in the event of security breaches, as well as some of its futures insurance fund and own corporate treasury.