Binance has again allowed customers to make withdrawals after dealing with the biggest hacking damage in its history, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Saturday.
Binance said on X that it has resumed withdrawals for some cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and ether, the report said. It plans to reopen withdrawals for other assets in stages. Binance blocked customer withdrawals last week, citing a security review.
Binance said it has replenished about 95 percent of the stolen assets. It said the remaining 5 percent involves assets with low market trading, and it takes more time to secure the needed amount.
Hackers siphoned off $6.3 billion from exchange wallets through multiple routes, including breaking into a Binance engineer’s laptop. Cybersecurity researchers and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pointed to the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor as being behind it. Stablecoin issuers including Tether and Circle, and cryptocurrency companies, froze about $3 billion of the funds. The remaining roughly $3.3 billion is still in the hands of the hackers.
Binance set aside more than $6.3 billion in company funds separately to make customers whole. The company plans to front the money and recoup it when the $3 billion in frozen funds is released. Binance said, "The theft losses are borne by Binance, not users."
Binance already held $5 billion of the $6.3 billion in the same cryptocurrencies the hackers took, and it is buying the remaining $1.3 billion worth in the market, the WSJ reported.
Binance, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, does not provide services to Americans. BinanceUS, which it operates separately in the United States, did not suffer damage from this hack.
Binance also plans to release a report detailing what happened once the investigation into the hack is concluded.