Binance Resumes Withdrawals for 15 Networks After $6.3 Billion Theft

Binance has resumed withdrawals for 15 blockchain networks after $6.3 billion was stolen from hot wallets, attributed to North Korean hackers. The exchange reported processing about $4.65 billion in withdrawals and receiving $1 billion in deposits. Founder Changpeng Zhao stated that in the first 12 hours, the net outflow was only 2.1%, and "98% decided to stay." DeFi Llama tracker records $5.8 billion outflow over 24 hours, but this data may include internal transfers and movements to new hot wallets. About 95% of the stolen funds have already been replenished from corporate reserves, insurance, and 50% of SAFU funds.

Investigation Progress

The FBI blamed TraderTraitor, linked to the Lazarus Group; this group was previously accused of hacking Bybit and Bitget. President Donald Trump stated, "We will talk to North Korea." The FBI published a list of addresses associated with the hack and separately urged THORnode operators, RPC nodes, exchanges, DeFi services, and analytics companies to block transactions from them. Zhao thanked the US Secret Service: "Your speed, expertise, and dedication helped limit the damage." According to Elliptic, about $2.84 billion of stolen assets, mainly USDC and USDT, are frozen in the network, with hackers retaining $3.33 billion. Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng dismissed the version that the attack was reduced to one laptop: "The attacker did not just use one engineer's rights, and it was not a one-click action." According to Ido Ben-Natan from Blockaid, the attackers could have managed without EIP-7702, but the mechanism helped bypass protections and withdraw assets in one go.

THORChain

North Korean hackers have previously exchanged stolen funds through THORChain, and on expectations of fees, RUNE rose by 13%. Meanwhile, nine protocol networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tron, are currently halted since October 31 for unrelated reasons. According to developer Chad Barraford, about 50 people manage 100 nodes, and the protocol can operate on four nodes. If one-third plus one operator votes for suspension, activity will stop; operators can also leave the network. Project founder JP Thor, who claims no longer to be involved, urged not to cooperate with authorities: "In my opinion, if THORNodes decide to shut down the protocol next week, the experiment is over."

Market

Crypto stocks, including Coinbase, Circle, and Strategy, fell sharply. Strive CEO Matt Cole noted that Bitcoin held up better than expected: "I have confidence that on any reasonable horizon, this does not change the investment thesis for Bitcoin." BTC hit a low of about $76.5K and recovered to $77,745. Nasdaq-listed company Next Technology decided to sell its treasury of 5,833 BTC for approximately $450 million. Hackers reportedly accumulated at least 18,000 BTC and 430,000 ETH. Standard Chartered's forecast: the hack may accelerate the shift to DEX, Kendrick maintains a $100 target for UNI by 2030.