Binance says 90% of stolen funds replenished

Bitcoin ↗ 0.40% slipped below $77,000 and shares of crypto companies fell sharply on Friday, Oct. 30. A $6.3 billion theft at Binance added to a broader selloff in technology stocks. Coinbase ↘ 3.98% closed down about 14%, Strategy ↘ 0.14% lost nearly 8% and stablecoin issuer Circle ↘ 0.63% fell about 11%, according to Investopedia. Investors are now watching Binance's plan to restart withdrawals on Sunday, Nov. 1.investopedia.com

A record theft hits the market

Reuters reported that hackers stole $6.3 billion from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and that analysts blamed the record theft on North Korea. Blockchain firm TRM Labs said about $6.36 billion was moved out of Binance wallets on 10 blockchains, most of it within about 20 minutes. Binance said attackers got in through a DevOps engineer's compromised laptop. Stablecoin issuers and other partners froze about $3 billion of the stolen assets, but TRM estimated that roughly $2.4 billion in bitcoin and ether had moved beyond reach.nbcnews.com+4

Robinhood also fell more than 10% during the session, The New York Times ↘ 0.30% reported. Coinbase was dealing with its own problems too. The day before, it reported that third-quarter net revenue fell about 34% from a year earlier. The wider market was weak as well. The Nasdaq Composite closed down 2.9% amid worries about AI spending, and Bitcoin was heading for a second straight losing October.crypto.news+2

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao called the hack "a major disaster for the industry, Binance (and me)," Investopedia reported.investopedia.com

Withdrawals in focus

Binance halted withdrawals and promised to cover all losses. It said it had reserved $6.34 billion in company funds, including $5 billion in the same tokens that were stolen. On Saturday, the exchange said 90% of the stolen assets had been replenished, up from about 80% earlier. It said it remained "on track to reopen withdrawals within our previously stated timeframe (on Sunday, 2026-11-01)." The remaining 10% is made up of less liquid tokens that may take longer to buy back. Binance said 10 major assets, including BTC, ETH, USDT and BNB, are fully backed. It also published a proof-of-reserves snapshot, with the full verification expected by Nov. 3.nytimes.com+2

Withdrawals will restart in phases, depending on security checks. Binance said it found no evidence that any wallet private keys were leaked.forbes.com

Fundstrat's Sean Farrell said what happens next for crypto prices depends on that restart: "The key tell will be how quickly withdrawals resume and whether outflows stay orderly," he wrote.investopedia.com