Binance’s Teng Says ‘Your Assets Are Safe,’ Targets Withdrawals Within 40 Hours
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng on Friday said the exchange has reserved $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses from this week’s security breach, targeting a return of withdrawals within 40 hours.
What Teng Confirmed About User Funds
Teng said in a video update on X that Binance never used customer funds and that the breach affected only the exchange’s own hot wallet, leaving user assets untouched.
"I want to be clear, we are committed to covering all hack losses through our company funds. Your assets are safe," he said.
Binance already holds roughly $5 billion of the committed $6.34 billion in USDC, USDT, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) and BNB (CRYPTO: BNB).
It plans to buy the remaining amount through market and OTC channels, though thin liquidity and settlement delays could slow the process.
Binance plans to publish an initial proof of reserves by Monday for users to verify their holdings independently.
Why Withdrawals Remain Paused for Now
Binance paused withdrawals to rebuild and rigorously retest its infrastructure, targeting restoration within roughly 40 hours, ahead of Sunday’s deadline.
Teng pointed out that multiple attackers carried out the breach, while investigators uncovered additional entry points beyond the engineer’s compromised laptop initially reported.
The attacker reportedly used Ethereum’s EIP-7702 feature to gain on-chain execution approval over a hot wallet, bypassing Binance’s normal approval controls, and deployed a self-destruct mechanism that erased tooling and traces as it ran.
Binance is now conducting a full security review across endpoints, cloud infrastructure, key management and signing systems, while working with law enforcement, blockchain intelligence firms and other exchanges to trace and recover stolen funds.
How the Industry Has Responded
Tether (CRYPTO: USDT) froze more than $1.57 billion in USDT tied to the breach, according to CEO Paolo Ardoino, while Circle (NYSE:CRCL) confirmed freezing more than $800 million in USDC (CRYPTO: USDC).
Moreover, Ripple (CRYPTO: XRP) froze roughly $200 million in associated funds, and World Liberty Financial (CRYPTO: WLFI) worked with BitGo to freeze about $27 million in stablecoins and $2 million in its own tokens.
Combined, industry partners have frozen roughly $3 billion separate from Binance’s own reserved funds.
Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR) Executive Chairman Michael Saylor posted on X that Binance has "committed its own balance sheet to making customers whole," adding he expects the industry to strengthen security and emerge more resilient.
Metaplanet (OTC:MTPLF) CEO Simon Gerovich also voiced support, noting the breach didn’t affect Bitcoin’s underlying network, which has operated normally under its established rules since 2009.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said several elements of the attack resemble prior incidents linked to North Korean hackers, including last year’s $1.5 billion Bybit breach, though Binance hasn’t formally attributed the attack to any specific group.
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