Binance sees $3.64B in net outflows after reopening following $6.3B hack

Binance confirmed it recorded $3.64 billion in net outflows after reopening withdrawals on Sunday, as anxious customers scrambled to move their funds off the exchange following a devastating $6.3 billion hack attributed to North Korean hackers.

Between 6 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. UTC on November 1, the world’s largest crypto exchange processed $4.65 billion in withdrawals against $1.01 billion in deposits. While the numbers sound alarming, the net outflow represented just 2.1% of Binance’s $171 billion in total assets based on its latest proof-of-reserves data from October 28.

The hack, which the FBI identified as the work of TraderTraitor, a North Korean-linked operation, sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry. Yet perhaps more telling than the outflows themselves was what happened next.

Customers Vote With Their Wallets, But Most Stay Put

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao moved quickly to address the crisis, taking to X (formerly Twitter) with a striking statistic: “98% choose to stay!” The message was clear, even if slightly defensive. Most customers, despite having the perfect justification to leave, decided to remain on the platform.

Zhao also revealed that the most dramatic outflows occurred within the first couple of hours after the exchange reopened withdrawals. After that initial panic-driven spike, withdrawal volumes declined and stabilized, while deposit volumes remained substantial. This pattern suggests that after the initial shock wore off, confidence in Binance’s response began to materialize.

“Trust isn’t earned by what you say in good times. It’s earned by what you do in hard times,” Zhao wrote, acknowledging that words mean little in a crisis.

The Exchange’s Damage Control

Binance’s response to the hack has been methodical. The exchange began restoring withdrawals in phases starting at 6 a.m. UTC on Sunday, bringing services back online across all 15 networks and assets in the initial phase by 12:36 p.m. UTC. Testing continued on remaining networks and assets, showing a deliberate, rather than reckless, approach to reopening operations.

Perhaps most importantly, Binance committed to absorbing the entire financial impact of the stolen funds rather than distributing losses across its user base. This decision alone may explain why 98% of users decided to stick around. The exchange had covered approximately 95% of the impacted amount at the time of reporting, up from 90% previously, with the remaining 5% consisting of less liquid tokens requiring more time to source in necessary quantities.

For a business in crisis mode, this kind of commitment sends a powerful message: the company values its users’ trust more than short-term profits.

What This Means for Crypto Users

The response to Binance’s hack challenges the narrative that a major security breach necessarily means the end of a platform. Users clearly weighed the risks and decided that an exchange taking full responsibility, moving methodically through recovery, and maintaining transparent communication represented a safer bet than moving everything to a smaller competitor or back to self-custody.

This doesn’t excuse the hack or minimize its severity. A $6.3 billion theft is staggering. But it does suggest that in the crypto industry, where trust is the most valuable commodity, how you handle disaster matters as much as preventing it in the first place.

The stability in deposits even as withdrawals spiked also hints at something else: new capital was still flowing into Binance despite the hack, suggesting that institutional and retail players alike still view the exchange as the most reliable option available.

Source: CNBC

When tested by adversity, the market reveals what it truly values.