Binance customers pull $4.7bn after $6.3bn hack, but confidence holds
Binance customers have withdrawn a net $4.72 billion since the exchange reopened after hackers stole around $6.3 billion in crypto, a heist the FBI says was carried out by North Korea and which may be the largest financial theft on record. The exchange froze withdrawals for more than two days before allowing them again on Sunday morning.
The outflows amount to about 3 per cent of assets on the platform, Binance said, a figure analysts described as modest and a sign that customer confidence largely held. Most withdrawals were in Tether's USDT stablecoin, the exchange added. By comparison, Circle's USDC stablecoin shed about $7 billion in a week after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in 2023, and Binance itself processed net outflows of about $6 billion over 72 hours in 2022 after FTX failed.
Binance said it is covering the losses with company funds and has raised $6 billion from its corporate treasury, an insurance fund and reserves set aside for security breaches. "Binance will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, not our users," the company said on X. It reported $2.7 billion of customer inflows since Sunday and said withdrawal volumes were stabilising after an initial spike. Tim Sun, a senior researcher at Hong Kong digital asset firm HashKey Group, said the hack had not triggered widespread panic or a concentrated withdrawal.
The FBI said on Saturday that the state-sponsored group TraderTraitor was responsible. TRM Labs said North Korea-linked hackers have stolen $7.4 billion so far in 2026. About half the stolen funds were held in stablecoins and have been frozen by issuers including Circle, which said on Monday it had frozen more than $1.1 billion in USDC. Elliptic said the hackers still control around $3.28 billion, mostly in bitcoin and ether, with only a negligible amount cashed out into fiat currency.
The fallout showed in adjacent markets. Spot bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows of $643 million on Friday, the largest daily withdrawal in October, and more than $1.3 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated, according to Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs. Bitcoin recovered from a six-week low to trade above $77,000 on Monday, while ether rebounded from a two-month low. Stablecoin market capitalisations have fallen since Friday, suggesting some investors moved into cash or traditional assets. Binance resumed US dollar cash withdrawals on Monday.
