Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Binance Completes Company-Funded Coverage After $6 Billion Theft
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Binance announced on November 12, 2026 that it had completed coverage of assets affected by its October security incident, after committing more than US$6.34 billion in company funds to cover the losses. The exchange also published a new Proof of Reserves snapshot covering 198 tokens.
The replenishment combined a partial deployment of the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), a portion of Binance’s Futures insurance fund above the level required under its risk-management framework, and Binance’s corporate treasury. The exchange sourced affected tokens through market and over-the-counter channels. It has also committed to replenish SAFU to approximately US$1 billion, returning the emergency user-protection reserve to its targeted size.
The FBI said on October 31, 2026 that North Korean TraderTraitor actors were responsible for stealing more than US$6 billion in virtual assets from Binance on or about October 29, 2026, and that it had observed the actors converting stolen assets primarily into Ether. Binance’s October 30, 2026 reserve statement had detailed its company-funding commitment. Its October 31 recovery update then reported 90% coverage, with BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC fully backed and less-liquid tokens outside that group forming the outstanding 10%.
New Snapshot Sets Up User Verification
The latest snapshot was taken at 00:00 UTC on November 12, 2026. Binance estimates that the full zero-knowledge proof will take approximately 40 to 50 hours to generate because of the computational workload. Once it is ready, users holding affected tokens will be able to independently verify that their assets are backed at a minimum of 1:1.
Binance’s Proof of Reserves documentation describes a system covering assets held in custody for users. Balances are organized into a Merkle tree, allowing users to check whether their accounts are included in the aggregate liabilities report. A zk-SNARK, a zero-knowledge proof protocol, checks that leaf-node balance sets contribute to the claimed total user asset balance, that each account’s total net balance is at least zero, and that changes to the Merkle root are valid. The process gives users a way to examine their own inclusion in the liabilities calculation behind the stated backing.
Withdrawals Continue in Phases
Binance said withdrawals are continuing to reopen in phases and that a very small number of affected tokens it no longer supports will be handled under its delisting process, with holders covered. Further updates will be provided as withdrawal confirmations arrive. Completed asset coverage therefore does not mean every withdrawal has resumed.
The announcement moves the recovery beyond the company-funded acquisition of replacement assets. The remaining checkpoints are completion of the cryptographic proof, user-level verification, further withdrawal confirmations, resolution of unsupported-token cases and replenishment of SAFU. Together, those steps connect Binance’s aggregate coverage statement with the backing users can check themselves and the withdrawal access they can use.
