THE CRUNCH
Binance has begun letting customers withdraw funds again after hackers stole $6.3 billion worth of crypto from the exchange's wallets. The company froze all deposits and withdrawals while it contained the incident, and announced early on Sunday that access would return in phases, depending on network and asset type.
Recovery is well advanced: Binance says it has now covered 95% of the stolen assets and is still sourcing the remainder, which it describes as less liquid and slower to buy at the required scale. The company says it will bear the financial impact and that the losses will not be passed on to users.
Not everything is back to normal. As of Sunday morning, Binance's status page showed a mix of normal, partially suspended and fully suspended services, with Bitcoin withdrawals still partially suspended, and the company warns of temporary delays due to traffic volume. A fuller incident report is promised once the investigation is complete.
The FBI said on Saturday that a North Korean group known as TraderTraitor was responsible, and that it was converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum, with further laundering likely. Binance had previously blamed North Korean hackers for the breach.