Binance lets customers check ten tokens are fully backed, but not the rest
A cryptographic check released on 2 November shows the exchange held enough of ten big tokens to cover every customer's balance after the theft. The smaller tokens it is still buying back are not covered yet.
Binance said on 2 November that customers holding any of ten large tokens can now check for themselves that the exchange holds enough of each to cover every balance. The ten include bitcoin, ether, Binance's own BNB and the two main dollar stablecoins, Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC. The check rests on a snapshot of Binance's holdings taken at midnight UTC on 31 October, after an attacker took about $6.3bn from the exchange on 29 October.
The check has two parts. The first lets each customer confirm that their own account was counted in the snapshot. The second is a zero-knowledge proof, a cryptographic technique that shows the exchange's total holdings cover what all customers are owed without revealing anyone's balance. To run it, a customer logs in, downloads Binance's verifying tool and runs it on their own computer. Binance says the tool is open source and that its code has been independently audited.
The check is narrower than the loss. Binance says it has replaced about 95% of the stolen assets with its own money. The missing 5% is in less traded tokens outside the ten, which take longer to buy in bulk. Those are exactly the tokens the check does not reach. Binance plans a new snapshot covering more tokens on 4 November. It estimates that the proof will then take 40 to 50 hours of computing, so a fuller check will not come before 5 November.
A snapshot also captures a single moment. This one was taken before withdrawals reopened on 1 November, so it says nothing about how much customers have taken out since. Binance has published no figure for those withdrawals. Nor has it said how much of the replacement money came from SAFU, its emergency fund, from the insurance fund for its futures market or from its own treasury. Its promise is unchanged, it says: Binance "will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, not our users". With the proof, it added, "the backed portion of that commitment is now publicly verifiable".
Withdrawals are widening too. From 04:00 UTC on 3 November Binance began reopening 103 more pairings of token and network, across nine blockchains including Ethereum, Solana and its own BNB Smart Chain. Not all will open at once. The exchange says it is putting first the tokens customers asked for most over the past week. Deposits have stayed open throughout.
How the attacker got in is still unexplained. On 30 October Binance promised technical findings within about 48 hours, and neither of its two latest updates contains them. Only the crypto trade press has reported the proof so far.
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Published a zero-knowledge proof of reserves for ten tokens from its 31 October snapshot on 2 November 2026 and began a second phase of reopening withdrawals on 3 November; the less traded tokens making up about 5% of the stolen assets are not yet covered.
On the record
Binance publishes a proof that ten tokens are fully backed and widens withdrawals
Binance published a zero-knowledge proof on 2 November, from its 31 October snapshot, letting holders of ten tokens, among them bitcoin, ether, USDT and USDC, confirm their balances are backed at least one for one. The less traded tokens that make up the last 5% of the stolen assets are not covered; a wider snapshot is due 4 November. A second withdrawal phase began on 3 November.