Binance Covers 5.67 Billion Dollars of 6.3 Billion Hack Loss From Corporate Reserves

The exchange drew from its Secure Asset Fund for Users, futures insurance fund, and treasury to restore full backing for BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC. TRM Labs and Chainalysis attribute the theft to TraderTraitor, the North Korean unit linked to the February 2025 Bybit breach. On-chain data shows the attacker used EIP-7702 delegations on Ethereum and standard transfers on nine other chains, indicating compromise of signing infrastructure rather than private key leakage. Binance initially described a single compromised DevOps laptop but later acknowledged multiple breach points. Issuers froze approximately 2.8 billion dollars in stolen assets, while the attacker retained 420,000 ETH and 18,270 BTC beyond immediate reach. Binance gains user retention by absorbing the loss rather than socializing it, at the cost of drawing down reserves it had earmarked for other contingencies. The remaining 10 percent in less liquid tokens will require extended OTC purchases. Withdrawals will resume in phases after a new proof-of-reserves snapshot. North Korea secures substantial unrecovered funds for its programs, while centralized exchanges face renewed pressure to harden hot-wallet controls. Phased reopening and zero-knowledge proofs by Tuesday will test whether users accept the restored backing without mass exits.