Binance recorded $4.7 billion in net outflows after restoring customer withdrawals following a hack attributed to North Korea, according to Insurance Journal. The amount represented about 3% of the exchange’s total assets under management, a Binance spokesperson said Monday.

The spokesperson said withdrawals remained within expectations and that deposits had been steadily increasing. Insurance Journal reported that the figures had changed after withdrawals resumed. The $4.7 billion total reflects withdrawals after deposits were subtracted.

Binance restored customers’ access ahead of schedule on Sunday, according to the report. The exchange used a combination of its own profits, emergency funds and insurance funds to make customers whole after $6.3 billion in assets were drained. Binance’s emergency fund, known as the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), was established in 2018 and is funded by a portion of trading fees.

The spokesperson said Binance held $157 billion in assets as of Monday. The figure came from internal estimates that accounted for the hack, subsequent withdrawals and price fluctuations. The report cautioned that not all withdrawals necessarily came from customers because Binance had also transferred assets between wallets.

Outflows Represent About 3% of Binance Assets

Some market participants said Binance’s response appeared to limit immediate disruption. Karl-Martin Ahrend, co-founder of digital-asset advisory firm Areta, called the way the exchange absorbed the loss “absolutely mind-blowing.” He said some outflows and trader rebalancing were expected, but that he did not foresee a longer-term impact.

Joshua Lim, co-head of markets at FalconX, said Binance’s publicly disclosed fees and trading volumes, together with statements from executives, suggested annual gross revenue of about $10 billion to $20 billion. For scale, even the low end of that estimated range would exceed the $6.3 billion drained in the hack. Lim said he believed the company had the financial strength to resume normal operations, while adding that the theft had damaged the digital-asset industry’s reputation.

The article said the broader digital-asset market remained relatively steady after the incident. Bitcoin was little changed at around $77,830 on Monday morning during New York hours. Binance’s spokesperson attributed the $157 billion asset estimate to internal calculations, while the report described the revenue figure as an estimate based on public information and executive statements.

Julia Zhou, president and co-founder of crypto market maker Caladan, cited Bybit’s loss of roughly $1.5 billion last year in a separate exploit that the FBI linked to North Korea. Zhou said funds were withdrawn after that incident before redemptions stabilized. She said market makers monitor net flows, whether deposits return, and how trading liquidity and market depth perform.

For background on how exchanges may address losses, Blocktelegraph has published an article on how crypto insurance works after a hack. That article discusses policy terms, exclusions and breach circumstances; it does not establish the insurance coverage available for this incident.

Market Makers Monitor Trading Conditions

Zhou said the larger test was whether Binance could maintain normal trading conditions. The report said counterparties continued trading on the exchange because they viewed it as the world’s largest liquidity venue and had little choice. That observation describes the counterparties’ position and does not guarantee future activity. The spokesperson’s report of steadily increasing deposits maps directly to the deposit-return gauge Zhou said market makers were tracking.

The report said the FBI blamed the North Korean group known as “TraderTraitor” for the Binance heist. The attribution placed the Binance heist alongside last year’s Bybit exploit as exchange thefts the FBI has linked to North Korea. It also described a broader increase in crypto cybercrime this year, driven in part by the growing sophistication and availability of artificial intelligence tools. The source did not quantify that increase.

Other recent theft reports provide separate examples of exchange security incidents. Bitget’s reported zero-day theft involved unauthorized wallet withdrawals linked to a flaw in third-party security products. In another Binance-related account, wallet permissions linked two accounts in a suspected hack. That analysis examines wallet permissions and does not independently resolve the theft’s attribution.

Nick Smart, chief intelligence officer at crypto analytics platform Crystal Intelligence, said the average crypto holder may feel “a bit stuck.” He also said Binance remained the dominant exchange platform despite the outflows and was “far from lost.” Zhou’s focus on deposits, liquidity and market depth identified the indicators she said market makers were watching as trading continued.

Source: Blocktelegraph