Binance resumes withdrawals for USDT, USDC, ETH, and BNB; Trump says he will discuss the matter if North Korea's involvement is confirmed
Binance has resumed withdrawals of USDT, USDC, ETH, and BNB on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain. This allows customers to regain the ability to transfer stablecoins for the first time since approximately $6.3 billion in assets were stolen on October 29th.
- Binance has resumed withdrawals for USDT, USDC, ETH, and BNB on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain.
- After Bitcoin withdrawals were resumed, stablecoin withdrawals were also restored on November 1st.
- Binance stated that 95% of the affected assets have been replenished, with the remaining 5% still to be replaced.
- U.S. President Donald Trump stated that if North Korea is confirmed to be involved, he will discuss this hacking incident with North Korea.
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attributed this attack to North Korea's TraderTraitor organization, while Binance is still working to restore more withdrawal services.
In its announcement on November 1st, Binance confirmed that USDT, USDC, and ETH could now be withdrawn through the Ethereum network, while BNB Smart Chain supported withdrawals of USDT, USDC, and BNB. Earlier on Sunday, after nearly three days of restrictions, the exchange began to resume services, with Bitcoin withdrawals being restored first.
Customers can now transfer their stablecoin holdings through these two supported networks, however, other withdrawal methods are still closed and await inspection by the security team.
Binance resumes stablecoin withdrawals after restoring BTC
During the phased recovery process, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency that Binance allowed customers to withdraw from. The recovery work began on Sunday morning.
The exchange originally scheduled the first recovery window from 06:00 to 09:00 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), with 15 networks initially listed for recovery. However, whether they will be opened still depends on whether each network has completed its security assessment.
According to reports from crypto.news earlier in Sunday, the BTC network recovered before any of the other listed cryptocurrencies.
With Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain now back up and running, users have once again gained access to two of the most commonly used dollar-pegged stablecoins for transferring funds between cryptocurrency platforms.
Binance has not disclosed how much USDT or USDC customers have withdrawn after the service was restored. Its latest announcement confirmed that the withdrawal function is now available, but no data on the total volume of transactions or the net inflow and outflow of funds from the exchange was provided.
Any fund movements from wallets related to Binance need further verification to distinguish between customer withdrawals and internal wallet transfers. As part of normal liquidity management, the exchange may allocate assets between its own addresses.
At the same time, Binance stated that during the entire period of the incident, the deposit function remained available. Therefore, even though withdrawal permissions are still being gradually restored, customers can continue to transfer funds to the platform.
The exchange has not yet announced when the rest of its networks will resume operations.
Binance claims to have replenished 95% of the affected assets as withdrawal services are resumed.
Before resuming withdrawals of stablecoins, Binance stated that approximately 95% of the assets affected by the attack on October 29th had been replaced.
The company previously stated that it had covered 80% of the losses, and then in an update on October 31st, it claimed to have reached 90%. The latest figures indicate that there is still about 5% of the affected assets that need to be made up for.
According to Binance, the balances of BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD, and ZEC have all been fully supported.
The remaining assets are mainly composed of cryptocurrencies with poor liquidity, and the company has been purchasing them through exchanges and over-the-counter trading desks.
Even earlier, Binance had reserved $6.34 billion of company funds to cover losses. Its recovery resources included the User Security Asset Fund, the company's treasury holdings, and part of the futures insurance fund.
The exchange has always stated that customers will not bear the financial losses caused by this attack.
Binance also released a latest proof of reserve snapshot as of 00:00 UTC on October 31. The complete zero-knowledge proof is expected to be released by November 3, at which time customers will be able to verify whether their balances are fully supported.
The company stated that it continues to purchase the remaining cryptocurrencies and is preparing a detailed report regarding this security vulnerability.
Trump said that if North Korea is confirmed to be involved, he would discuss the Binance hacking incident with them.
As Binance resumes withdrawals, U.S. President Donald Trump responded to allegations that North Korean hackers were responsible for this attack.
According to a report by SBS News on November 1st, Trump stated to reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on October 31st that his administration was investigating the matter.
Trump said, "We are investigating. I am not worried."
He also stated that he is not sure whether North Korea is responsible for this matter, but if their involvement is confirmed, he will discuss this issue with that country.
Trump's statement followed an alert issued by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on October 31. The alert attributed the theft of over $6 billion in cryptocurrencies to a hacking operation by North Korea's TraderTraitor.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated that investigators observed that the attackers primarily converted the stolen assets into Ethereum and anticipate that further transfers will continue through decentralized financial protocols and instant exchange services.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Secret Service, and the Criminal Investigations Division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are urging cryptocurrency companies and blockchain operators to intercept transactions involving addresses associated with attackers.
Earlier on-chain surveys indicated that the stolen assets were transferred across multiple networks, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Polkadot.
Binance stated that it continues to cooperate with law enforcement agencies, token issuers, and blockchain analysis companies to freeze and recover stolen cryptocurrencies. Its security team is also examining more wallets before reopening the remaining withdrawal network.
