Binance puts security incident impact at $6.3 billion

Binance said Friday, Oct. 30, that a security incident had an estimated $6.3 billion impact, with about $3 billion frozen on-chain as the exchange and its partners work to trace affected assets. The Associated Press report said Binance had not explicitly confirmed funds were stolen in its initial response.

How does Binance say the attacker gained access?

Binance’s preliminary investigation points to a possibly compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer. In its latest incident update, the exchange said the attacker may have used access to a service container to submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

Binance said it found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. The exchange said the incident involved multiple factors and that it is still tracing the attack path; it has not yet published its full account of the cause.

What is Binance doing about the affected assets?

The exchange said it had worked with blockchain partners to freeze about $3 billion of the estimated $6.3 billion impact. Binance said it would cover all losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users, or SAFU, and corporate funds, and that user funds are safe.

Binance said it is working with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace and recover assets. The company has not confirmed the identities of those responsible.

When will Binance restore withdrawals?

Deposits are operating normally, Binance said, while withdrawals remain paused during a security revamp of the withdrawal service and related addresses. The exchange said it expects withdrawals to resume within 48 hours.

Binance said it will publish a technical post-mortem and an updated proof of reserves after remediation is complete. The attack path, final losses and amount ultimately recovered remain unconfirmed.

Source material

• Associated Press report — apnews.com
• latest incident update — binance.com