Binance says it replaced assets affected by October hack

In a Nov. 12 announcement, Binance said customers would be able to verify that their assets were backed at a minimum of 1:1 once the proof was ready. The exchange gave no timeline for its release and no breakdown of the final replacement purchases by asset. It also did not say that attackers’ stolen cryptocurrency had been recovered.

Binance’s Oct. 31 recovery update identified three sources for replacement funding: the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), part of its Futures Insurance Funds and the company treasury. The exchange said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds, covering 90% of affected assets at that point. Coverage reached approximately 98% by Nov. 4. Binance said it bought replacement assets through market and over-the-counter channels, with limited liquidity slowing the purchase of remaining tokens.

The exchange said its futures insurance reserves were company funds, separate from customer assets, and that transfers came from balances above the level required by its risk framework. Binance also committed to restoring SAFU to approximately $1 billion; the Nov. 12 statement did not confirm whether that separate commitment was complete.

The new snapshot is not yet independently checkable. In earlier rounds, Binance completed reserve verification on Nov. 2 for a snapshot taken at 00:00 UTC on Oct. 31, covering 10 cryptocurrencies. A snapshot taken at 00:00 UTC on Nov. 4 expanded coverage to 44 tokens. Binance estimated that generating the accompanying proof would take 50–60 hours, citing the computing workload.

Binance says its Merkle tree lets customers check whether their balances appear in reported account totals, while its zero-knowledge system verifies calculations without disclosing individual holdings. The company’s methodology includes wallet ownership checks and a snapshot of customer balances. The PCAOB’s Office of the Investor Advocate cautions that Proof of Reserves reports are not financial statement audits: they capture assets at a particular time and may not establish liabilities, borrowing arrangements, customer legal rights, internal controls or whether assets remain available after the snapshot.