Binance Reserves $6.34B to Cover Hack Losses; CEO Says Customer Funds Untouched

Binance will cover every dollar lost in this week's hack using company funds, CEO Richard Teng said Friday, stating that customer assets were never affected. The exchange has reserved more than $6.34 billion to cover stolen assets, including $5 billion already held in the exact tokens taken — USDC, USDT, BTC, ETH and BNB — with the remainder being purchased through market and over-the-counter channels. Teng said the breach hit Binance's own hot wallet, not customer funds, and that most user assets are held in cold wallets. The attacker used EIP-7702, an Ethereum feature allowing standard wallets to execute smart contract code, to obtain onchain approval over the hot wallet — a delegation that bypassed normal approval controls. Blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis attributed the theft to North Korean group TraderTraitor. Binance paused withdrawals to rebuild infrastructure and aims to restore them before its Sunday deadline, with a full proof-of-reserves report due by Monday. The attacker continues moving funds; a Tron wallet linked to the hack sent roughly $1.73 million in TRX to 12 addresses Friday. Aave unfroze all V3 and V4 markets after a precautionary pause, confirming it was unaffected.