Binance Says It Replaced $6.3 Billion After Record Crypto Heist

Six-point-three billion dollars drained from a single exchange in roughly 20 minutes. Binance now says every customer who lost assets in that October 29 attack has been made whole, but "replaced" refers to new tokens Binance acquired, not to any recovery of the funds attackers took.

The exchange said it committed more than $6.34 billion in company resources to cover customer balances. Binance drew on SAFU (its Secure Asset Fund for Users, an emergency reserve built for this purpose) and corporate treasury holdings, according to reporting on the company's disclosure. Replacement tokens were acquired through ordinary market purchases and over-the-counter transactions spread across approximately two weeks.

The critical distinction bears repeating. Binance bought new tokens to restore customer balances. The original stolen assets have not been recovered and remain in circulation.

What Actually Happened on October 29

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs documented the scale and speed of an attack now recorded as the largest crypto theft in history.

According to TRM Labs, attackers moved approximately $6.36 billion out of Binance wallets across 10 separate blockchains, with most of the transfer completed in about 20 minutes. TRM Labs attributed the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, a state-linked hacking unit, based on blockchain transaction analysis, off-chain intelligence, and operational similarities to previous attacks tied to the same group.