Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said Sunday that it had begun allowing users to withdraw money, three days after it froze assets in the wake of a cyberattack. Withdrawals initially spiked, as the exchange saw an outflow of $3.64 billion, but then stabilized, Binance said.
The movement was relatively small, Binance said, representing just 2.1 percent of the $171 billion in assets that it manages.
The announcement was an effort to reassure Binance’s users after hackers stole $6.3 billion in digital coins on Thursday, in what appears to be the biggest crypto heist to date. In the wake of the hack, Binance halted withdrawals.
“Our team continues testing rigorously the remaining networks and assets,” Binance said in a post on social media. “We know how important safe and reliable access to your funds is and will share details of the next phase as soon as we can. Rest assured that market conditions are stable.”
Binance said that it would cover all losses that occurred during the hack and that it had worked with other cryptocurrency firms to freeze about $3 billion in stolen assets.
Cybersecurity analysts and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have attributed the hack to North Korea, which has targeted cryptocurrency companies for years, taking advantage of vulnerabilities in their infrastructure to steal assets. The hackers may have used artificial intelligence technology to accelerate their attack, according to the crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, which said that the attackers processed “thousands of transactions in a short period.”
After Binance began allowing users to conduct transactions again, users deposited $1.01 billion and withdrew about $4.65 billion in assets, the company said. Most of those transactions occurred in the first few hours after trading was restored.
“Trust isn’t earned by what you say in good times. It’s earned by what you do in hard times,” Changpeng Zhao, a co-founder of Binance, said in a post on X on Sunday. “Thank you for your trust!”
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