Binance To Resume Crypto Withdrawals In Phases; FBI Links Over $6 Billion Theft To North Korea

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is preparing to resume cryptocurrency withdrawals in phases following a temporary suspension linked to a security incident at the exchange. Selected assets and networks will be made available progressively after security checks.

Crypto Withdrawals To Resume In Phases

Binance said the first phase of withdrawals would begin on November 1, 2026 between 06:00 and 09:00 UTC (11:30 am and 2:30 pm IST). In a subsequent post on X (formerly Twitter), the exchange said, "First batch network is $BTC bitcoin network.”

Additional assets and networks will be made available as they become ready. Binance said it was prioritising them based on user demand over the previous week. Deposits remained open during the suspension, although the exchange cautioned that withdrawals could face delays due to transaction volumes. Binance said withdrawals had been suspended as a precaution while it assessed the incident, secured affected services, and reviewed its withdrawal infrastructure.

Binance Says 95 Per Cent Of Impacted Amount Covered

In its November 1, 2026 update, Binance said it had covered approximately 95 per cent of the impacted amount, up from 90 per cent in its previous update. It had initially reported covering around 80 per cent.

The exchange said the remaining 5 per cent comprised less liquid tokens outside the 10 assets it had listed as fully backed. It plans to source these through market and over-the-counter (OTC) purchases. According to Binance, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), BNB, Solana (SOL), USD Coin (USDC), XRP, USD1, RLUSD and Zcash (ZEC) are fully backed at 100 per cent.

Binance said it used a partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), a portion of its futures insurance fund and its corporate treasury to replenish the affected assets. It had earlier said it set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the losses. The exchange also reported taking a Proof of Reserves (PoR) snapshot on October 31, 2026, with the full zero-knowledge proof expected by November 3.

FBI Attributes Over $6 Billion Binance Theft To North Korea

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said North Korea was responsible for stealing more than $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance on or around October 29, 2026. The agency identified the cyber activity as TraderTraitor. The FBI said it observed the actors converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum (ETH) and expected them to use decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms and instant swap services for further laundering.

Along with the US Secret Service (USSS) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the FBI urged cryptocurrency exchanges, decentralised finance (DeFi) services, Blockchain analytics firms and other virtual asset service providers to block transactions involving addresses associated with the activity. It also called on THORNode and RPC node operators to block related transactions.