Binance Hit by Record $6.3B Hack — But Says Your Money Is Safe

Binance will cover a record $6.3B hack with its own funds. CEO says customer assets were never touched and withdrawals return Sunday.

The world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange (a website where people buy and sell digital coins), Binance, was just hit by the largest hack in dollar history — but the company says ordinary users won't lose a cent.

CEO Richard Teng announced that Binance will cover all stolen money using its own company funds. "Your assets are safe," he said in a video message.

The key numbers:

Binance has set aside over $6.34 billion to cover the losses
$5 billion is already held in the exact coins that were stolen — including USDC, USDT (both "stablecoins," digital coins pegged to the US dollar), Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Binance's own coin (BNB)
The rest is being bought on the open market

Why users are protected: The hack hit Binance's "hot wallet" (an online account used for fast transactions), not customer money. Most user funds sit in "cold wallets" (offline storage that hackers can't reach over the internet), and only move online when someone withdraws.

How the attack happened: Investigators say it wasn't one person. The hackers used a special Ethereum feature called EIP-7702 to gain control over a hot wallet, bypassing Binance's normal safety checks. They even used a "self-destruct" tool to erase their tracks. Security firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis blame a North Korean hacking group called TraderTraitor.

What happens next:

Binance aims to restart withdrawals by Sunday
It will publish a full "proof of reserves" (public evidence it holds enough money to cover customers) by Monday
The hacker is still moving stolen funds around on the Tron network

Binance co-founder CZ noted that unlike past disasters like Mt. Gox and FTX — where users lost everything — Binance is absorbing the loss itself. "It hurts, but we survive," he wrote.

Bottom line: A historic hack, but Binance says customers are fully protected by company money.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://decrypt.co/382237/binance-sets-aside-6-34b-to-cover-hack-losses-ceo-says-your-assets-are-safe