Binance experienced a sharp wave of customer withdrawals, registering approximately $3.64 billion in net outflows after the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange officially reopened its payout networks.
Binance customers pulled out their assets, as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange went back online on Sunday after hackers the FBI links to North Korea stole billions from the platform last week.
Binance said withdrawals were stabilizing after an initial spike and deposit volumes had remained “substantial”.
The exchange said it had now covered 95% of the $6.3 billion of stolen assets.
The surge in withdrawals followed a temporary service freeze prompted by a historic $6.3 billion security breach, which federal investigators and blockchain analysts have attributed to North Korea’s state-sponsored TraderTraitor hacking unit.
According to platform data, the heavy withdrawals accounted for roughly 2.1% of the exchange’s total assets under management.
While transaction volumes spiked immediately after withdrawal gates were unlocked in phases across major networks, Binance leadership noted that the panic-driven rush has since begun to stabilize, with steady deposit volumes continuing alongside normal operations.
The heist, which analysts believe may be the biggest financial robbery ever, adds to a string of recent crypto thefts. Withdrawal levels are an early test of whether customers still trust the exchange with their money after the attack.
Attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 incidents last year, according to researchers at TRM Labs.
Binance said the net outflows reflected what clients had withdrawn and deposited as of 1530 GMT. Crypto analytics platform DefiLlama said on its dashboard, opens new tab that outflows were higher, at $4.36 billion.
“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.
To reassure jittery markets and secure user balances, Binance utilized corporate reserves and asset funds to cover roughly 95% of the stolen digital assets ahead of the rollout, promising full reimbursement for all affected accounts.
