Binance’s Teng says outflows normalized after $6.3B hack

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said on Tuesday, November 3, that the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange is in "very strong financial health." Speaking at a Hong Kong Fintech Week event, he said customer flows have stabilized after a theft of about $6.3 billion that may be the largest financial heist ever, and that a "post mortem" of the attack will be released in due course.reuters.com

"In the first 24 hours, there was a spike in terms of withdrawals, as can be expected. But after that … it's pretty much normalized," Teng said. He added that 95% of the affected tokens had been replenished. "This is something that we can cover. We are able to do so," he said.gmanetwork.com

Withdrawals and Recovery

Customers had withdrawn a net $4.72 billion as of Monday. Binance froze withdrawals for more than two days after the hack and began reopening them on Sunday morning. The exchange said the net outflows came to about 3% of the assets on its platform. Most withdrawals were in Tether's USDT stablecoin, and Binance reported $2.7 billion in inflows since Sunday. In a post on X early Tuesday, Binance said hourly deposits now exceed withdrawals. The same day, it reopened withdrawals for more assets and continued a rewards campaign, launched Monday and running through November 21, to keep current users and attract new ones.asiaone.com+1

The theft happened on Thursday, October 29. Binance said it would cover customer losses using company assets, an insurance fund and a $1 billion strategic Bitcoin reserve. It also bought back various tokens on the open market (Anadolu Agency; The Washington Post). Stablecoin issuers have frozen some of the stolen funds, including more than $1.1 billion in USDC frozen by Circle. Elliptic estimates the hackers still control about $3.28 billion, mostly in bitcoin and Ether.washingtonpost.com+2

North Korea Denies FBI Claim

Over the weekend, the FBI blamed the attack on TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, called the accusation "absurd rhetoric and nothing new," according to North Korea's state news agency KCNA. She said Pyongyang had "issues to reconsider" because of what she called US hostility.gmanetwork.com+1

Elliptic estimates North Korea has stolen $7.6 billion in crypto so far this year, a record. Chainalysis linked 89% of 2026 crypto hack losses to the country. Analysts said the fact that prices did not fall much suggests investors see this as a security failure at one exchange, not a problem with crypto as a whole. "Investors appear to be distinguishing between a security failure at a centralized exchange and a problem with the Bitcoin network itself," said Maksym Repa of Lombard.gmanetwork.com