Binance Restarts Withdrawals as Questions Linger on Record Hack

Binance began restoring customer withdrawals Sunday after hackers drained over $6 billion in the biggest cyber theft ever recorded, as the crypto industry awaits answers on the breach blamed on North Korea and steps to strengthen the exchange’s defenses.

The world’s largest digital-asset platform reopened Bitcoin withdrawals after 2 p.m. Singapore time, more than two days after halting them following the breach. By evening in Asia, the exchange had seen some $3.5 billion in net outflows, according to DefiLlama data. Co-Chief Executive Officer Yi He said on X some transfers are between Binance wallets.

The first phase of withdrawals covers 15 tokens, including Ether and the two biggest stablecoins, Tether’s USDT and Circle Internet Group Inc.’s USDC, Binance said on X. Withdrawals on 15 blockchain networks including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, XRP and Base resumed by around 8:30 p.m. in Singapore, according to the company.

Binance dwarfs its industry rivals, with roughly $132 billion in assets, compared with about $29 billion at the second-largest exchange OKX. “We are taking a phased approach by prioritizing tokens based on the past week data of user demand, so that each network and asset pair can be restored carefully, with stability and security checks completed before access is reopened,” Binance said.