Binance users withdraw $4.6B after record hack reopens exchange

Between 6:00 AM and 3:30 PM UTC on Sunday, November 1, the numbers broke down like this:

• Withdrawals: $4.649 billion
• Deposits: $1.01 billion
• Net outflow: about $3.64 billion, just over 2% of the exchange’s estimated $171 billion in assets as of October 28

The rush followed a theft that experts have called the largest crypto heist in history. Binance froze withdrawals while it investigated, and the FBI has since blamed North Korea. The agency says the DPRK-backed network known as TraderTraitor stole more than $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance around October 29, and that its members were seen converting the stolen assets into Ethereum.

Binance began a phased reopening on Sunday, starting with major assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum based on user demand. Withdrawals in US dollars are now available, with euro, yen and other fiat currencies restored earlier. Binance said on X that withdrawal volumes settled after an initial spike.

The company also claims it has recovered 95% of the $6.3 billion in stolen tokens, with the rest taking longer to source because of lower liquidity. Co-founder Yi He rejected comparisons to collapsed rival FTX, saying: Our top priority is to ensure the environment is secure, after which users can withdraw their funds and Binance can resume operations.

Fake Compensation Offers Are Already Circulating

As customers rushed to move funds, scammers followed. Co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) warned on X that scammers are now in overdrive. Binance confirmed that screenshots promising $150 in free compensation are false and digitally altered, and told users to rely only on its official channels.

Bitcoin ETFs and Options Show the Spillover

The fallout reached well beyond one exchange. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643 million in net outflows on Friday, their first session after the hack, and no fund posted a net inflow. BlackRock’s IBIT lost $233.7 million and Fidelity’s FBTC lost $201 million.

Options traders moved the same way. Put options made up 68% of Bitcoin options premiums traded in the 12 hours after the hack, up from 43% over the previous five days. The odds of Bitcoin reaching $100,000 by year-end fell from 6% to 3.5%.

Hashlytics Take

A net outflow of about 2% of assets looks more like cautious users moving funds than a run on the exchange. Binance has answered the FTX comparison in the only way that counts, by paying out, but that rests on a single day of data. What happens to outflows over the next week says more than Sunday’s total. The 95% recovery figure deserves similar care, since it comes from Binance itself and none of the reporting offers independent confirmation. The ETF outflows and the jump in put buying are the clearer signal that the market is pricing this as a Bitcoin problem, not just a Binance one.