Binance taps 7,499 Bitcoin from SAFU after $6.3 billion hack, publishes reserve proof

Binance has used part of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) to cover losses from Thursday’s $6.3 billion hack, reducing the exchange’s publicly disclosed emergency Bitcoin wallet to about 7,500 BTC. For high-risk payment and crypto operators, the two things that matter here are simple: how fast an exchange can restore liquidity after a theft, and how transparent its reserve reporting is while it does it.

1. Binance confirmed a transfer of 7,499 Bitcoin (BTC) on Saturday, saying the move was a partial deployment of SAFU. As of Monday, the wallet held about 7,500 BTC, worth $583 million, down from about 15,000 BTC before the transfer.
2. The theft was described as the largest in cryptocurrency history. Binance suspended withdrawals while it worked to replace the stolen assets, and the FBI attributed the attack to North Korea on Saturday, identifying the hackers as TraderTraitor.
3. Withdrawals began reopening in phases on Sunday. Binance said it had replenished approximately 95% of the affected assets, up from 90% a day earlier, and was still buying the remaining less-liquid tokens through market and over-the-counter transactions.
4. The exchange said it is using its corporate treasury, SAFU and part of its futures insurance fund to cover the losses. SAFU’s policy says that if the fund’s market value falls below US $800 million because of BTC price fluctuations, Binance will rebalance it to restore the value to $1 billion.
5. That same policy does not set a deadline for replenishing funds withdrawn after a security incident. Binance did not immediately respond to questions about SAFU’s remaining reserves, further deployments and plans to replenish the fund.

Binance also said Monday that users can now verify their balances against its Saturday proof-of-reserves snapshot after it completed the accompanying cryptographic proof. The snapshot covered customer holdings in 10 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether and USDT, and Binance said those balances were backed at least 1:1. Another snapshot covering more tokens is planned for Wednesday, with the proof expected to take another 40 to 50 hours to generate.