Here’s what happened in crypto today
Today in crypto: Binance’s emergency Bitcoin wallet held roughly half its pre-hack balance as the exchange worked to cover $6.3 billion in losses, the FBI blamed North Korea for the theft and the attack drew political reactions ahead of Tuesday’s US midterm elections.
Binance taps half its SAFU Bitcoin holdings, releases reserve proof
Binance’s publicly disclosed emergency Bitcoin wallet held roughly half its previous balance on Monday after the exchange tapped its user protection fund to cover losses from Thursday’s $6.3 billion hack.
The exchange confirmed a transfer of 7,499 Bitcoin (BTC) on Saturday, linking it to the partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU).
As of Monday, the wallet held about 7,500 BTC, worth $583 million, down from about 15,000 BTC before the transfer.
Binance began reopening withdrawals in phases on Sunday and said it had replenished approximately 95% of the affected assets, up from 90% a day earlier. It continued buying the remaining, less-liquid tokens through market and over-the-counter transactions.
The exchange is using its corporate treasury, SAFU and part of its futures insurance fund to cover the losses.
FBI blames North Korea for record $6.3B Binance hack
The FBI said that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) was responsible for the theft of about $6.3 billion in digital assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance on Thursday.
The FBI said on Saturday in a news release that it refers to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as “TraderTraitor,” which it has most recently observed converting stolen assets mostly into Ether (ETH).
It expects these assets to be further converted, using DeFi and instant swap services, as the hackers move to more advanced laundering stages.
The FBI urged private sector entities including THORNode operators, RPC node operators, instant exchanges, DeFi services, blockchain analytics firms and other digital asset service providers to block transactions with or derived from addresses TraderTraitor actors are using to launder these stolen assets. A full list of addresses is provided on the news release.
Binance hack sparks pre-election political clashes
Soon after the $6.3 billion hack of Binance, the biggest in crypto history, some political and administration figures began offering their opinions with a US election approaching on Nov. 3 and voting already having begun in many locations.
President Donald Trump was asked at a news conference on Friday about the hack of Binance. “We don’t know. We’re looking at that, the hack with Binance. They’re saying they’re going to get it back, they’re saying they’re guaranteeing it,” he replied.
The crypto exchange said in a post on X late Friday that it would cover any losses. “We want to be clear about our commitment: Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users.” It added that about $3 billion of the stolen funds had already been frozen in various locations. On Saturday, Binance said it had already covered 90% of the impacted amount of the hacked loss.
It was not clear whether there was any immediate political advantage to be gained from the hack, which was widely attributed to a North Korean group, but Republican and Democratic sides began staking out positions almost immediately.