Binance announced it will begin restoring withdrawals to customers in phases starting Sunday, after a record-breaking cyber theft of over $6 billion forced it to suspend transactions, sparking widespread concerns about security in the cryptocurrency sector. Binance is the world's largest digital asset exchange.
The platform explained that the first phase will run from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Saudi Arabia time on November 1st, with additional cryptocurrencies and other blockchain networks to be gradually restored after security checks and stability verification.
Binance indicated that it will prioritize assets based on the volume of withdrawal requests during the past week, allowing services to resume gradually rather than reopening all transactions at once.
This announcement came in the wake of the breach disclosure on Thursday, which prompted Binance to suspend withdrawals early Friday in Asia.
The FBI attributed the attack to the North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor, which was previously linked to a $1,500,000,000 theft from the cryptocurrency trading platform Bybit in 2025.
Binance reported that it has returned approximately 90% of the stolen cryptocurrency, confirming that customers will not incur any financial losses.
The stolen assets included Bitcoin and Ether , as well as the dollar-linked stablecoins USDT and USDC.
Co-CEO Richard Teng said the platform is able to cover losses through its cryptocurrency holdings accumulated from its operating revenues.
Co-CEO Yi He indicated that Binance's annual revenue is sufficient to absorb the financial impact of the incident.
Bitcoin traded near $77,700.00 on Sunday, down about 5% from its peak on Thursday before the attack, while the major cryptocurrencies saw relatively limited price movements.
Binance holds assets of approximately $135 billion, far surpassing its competitor OKX, which holds assets estimated at around $29 billion, according to DefiLlama.
Binance also has a Safe Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), which it established in 2018 to protect customers in extraordinary events, and this emergency reserve has been maintained at a level close to $1,000,000,000.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that a software engineer's computer was compromised, along with other potential entry points, but Binance has confirmed that it has found no evidence of a leak of private wallet keys.
This incident has intensified scrutiny of cryptocurrency security systems, amid growing concerns about hackers employing artificial intelligence in reconnaissance and social engineering operations.
