Binance says it has covered 90% of losses from $6.3bn hack

“Binance”, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, says it has covered 90% of the $6.3bn (£4.7bn) in assets stolen in a hack on Thursday, according to the BBC.

The company said the remaining 10% may take longer to source in the required amounts. It has pledged to cover all the losses and said it had set aside more than $6.34bn in company funds for that purpose.

“Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users,” the company said in a statement on Saturday. It said it had replenished the assets using various funds and its corporate treasury.

The exchange said holdings of “Bitcoin”, “Ethereum” and “Tether”, as well as seven other widely traded crypto assets, were covered.

“Binance” said its next goal was to resume withdrawal services for users. It said it remained on track to reopen withdrawals on Sunday 1 November and would provide a further update once details were confirmed.

The hack is believed to be the largest in history, surpassing the record of a $1.5bn heist on the “Bybit” exchange in 2025.

“Binance”’s initial investigation suggested an engineer’s laptop had been compromised, allowing unauthorised withdrawals. A later update said investigators had uncovered “additional points of breach”.

Richard Teng, “Binance”’s co-chief executive officer, said more than one person carried out the hack. He said the hackers used sophisticated methods to conceal their tracks, including a “self-destruct mechanism”.

On Friday, the company said it had frozen around $3bn in stolen assets after working with law enforcement, intelligence firms and partners. The investigation is ongoing.

The US Secret Service said on Friday it was “working around the clock” with private-sector partners “to identify, freeze, trace, and recover funds” stolen from “Binance”.

Two major blockchain analytics firms said they had robust intelligence pointing to the North Korean state-backed group The Lazarus Group, also known as TraderTraitor, as the likely culprits.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said North Korea was responsible for the theft of $1.5bn from the “Bybit” exchange last year. North Korea has consistently denied involvement in such attacks.

Founded in China in 2017, “Binance” allows users to buy, sell and trade digital assets. The company is estimated to have hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

Cryptocurrency is a digital asset that does not exist physically and is accessed through digital wallets or computers.