Binance customers withdrew $3.64bn, representing 2.1 per cent of the exchange’s assets, as the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange resumed operations on Sunday following last week’s hack, which the FBI has linked to North Korea.
Binance said withdrawals had begun to stabilise after an initial surge, while deposit volumes remained “substantial”.
The exchange added that it had covered 95 per cent of the $6.3bn in stolen assets.
The heist, which analysts believe could be the largest financial robbery ever recorded, adds to a growing list of cryptocurrency thefts. The scale of withdrawals will serve as an early indicator of whether customers still trust Binance with their funds following the attack.
Researchers at TRM Labs estimated that attackers stole $2.9bn worth of cryptocurrency in nearly 150 incidents last year.
Binance said its net outflow figure reflected customer withdrawals and deposits recorded as of 1530 GMT.
However, crypto analytics platform DefiLlama reported higher outflows of $4.36bn.
“This figure does not contain the flows we have deposited to our own new hot wallet, so they are not accurate. Our last update on X is closest to accurate (outstanding the moves in both deposits and withdrawals since it was posted),” a spokesperson for Binance said of the DefiLlama data.
Binance, which was founded in China, said withdrawals would resume in phases, with priority given to customer demand.
The first phase covered 15 tokens, including Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin and selected USDC and USDT stablecoins.
“We are taking a phased approach by prioritizing tokens based on the past week data of user demand,” Binance said in an earlier article posted on X, opens new tab.
Binance said earlier on Sunday that it had used its own funds to purchase replacement tokens, covering $6bn worth of the stolen cryptocurrency.
The exchange said the remaining five per cent comprised less liquid assets, which could take longer to acquire in the required quantities.
