ABU DHABI: Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, says it has covered US$6bil of the US$6.3bil stolen from its platform by using company money to buy replacement tokens, after a hack that US officials said was carried out by a North Korean state-sponsored unit known as TraderTraitor.
“We had already covered US$6bil of the impacted amount of the hacked loss,” Binance said on X last Saturday, after saying earlier that it had covered 90% of the stolen funds.
The remaining amount, now less than 10%, consists of assets that are less liquid and may take longer to source in the required amounts, according to Binance.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Saturday the North Korean state-sponsored unit known as TraderTraitor was responsible for the attack.
North Korea has for years denied using state-linked cyber units for espionage, financial theft and revenue.
Its mission in Geneva and embassy in China did not respond to requests for comment.
Members of the unit were observed by law enforcement converting stolen assets into the cryptocurrency ethereum, the FBI said in a statement, adding that it expects “further laundering” of the assets through the use of related technology.
Analysts had previously blamed North Korea and said it could be the largest financial heist of all time.
Binance has been working with industry partners to freeze some of the affected assets, with about US$3bil located as of last Friday.
The company has repeatedly said it would bear the financial impact of the funds stolen in the hack.
The money spent re-buying tokens came from using part of its US$1bil Secure Asset Fund for Users (Safu), a bitcoin reserve it holds to protect customers in the event of security breaches, as well as some of its Futures Insurance Fund, and the company’s own corporate treasury, it said on X.
Co-chief executive officer (CEO) Yi He said last Saturday that 50% of its Safu funds would be used, while the company said it was committing to replenishing the fund to return it to about US$1bil.
Crypto prices fell last Friday, while Binance sought to reassure customers that their funds were safe after the hack.
Co-CEO Richard Teng had said that the breach was a “complex attack” involving a compromised laptop and malicious software designed to delete evidence of its activity, making it harder to trace and investigate.
After the hack, the exchange stopped allowing customers to withdraw their funds, but it said last Saturday it was still on track to reopen withdrawals yesterday.
Withdrawals were not open as of 10.50am yesterday.
Binance said it has set aside around US$6.34bil of company funds internally to cover the losses.
Binance also said it had taken a new snapshot of assets held on its platform as of 8am yesterday, as part of its proof-of-reserves process.
Users holding the 10 listed tokens – BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD, and ZEC – would be able to verify that their assets were backed at a minimum ratio of 1:1 once the full proof was available, it said. — Reuters
