CEO Richard Teng says the exchange will absorb the $6.3 billion blow with its own resources and insists that user funds remain safe.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is trying to ease uncertainty after suffering a cyberattack of historic proportions. On Friday, Binance CEO Richard Teng said the company will answer for the full extent of the damage with its own assets, with the impact estimated at around $6.3 billion.
The announcement came in a video message posted on X, in which Teng sought to reassure a community of users and investors closely following the case. “I want to be clear: we are committed to covering all losses,” the executive said, insisting that customer assets remain protected.
A Reserve of More Than $6.34 Billion
According to Teng, Binance has set aside more than $6.34 billion from its own treasury to compensate for the value of the stolen assets, a figure that exceeds the estimated damage.
Of that total, the company already holds $5 billion in the same cryptocurrencies targeted in the attack: USDC, USDT, BTC, ETH and BNB. The remainder will be covered by purchasing crypto assets on the open market and through over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, meaning direct deals between parties outside conventional trading platforms.
“We Never Use Our Customers’ Funds”
Teng acknowledged that many users are asking how the platform can prove their assets have not been compromised. His answer was categorical: Binance never uses customer money in its own operations, so user balances were not affected.
To back up that claim, the executive announced that a preliminary proof-of-reserves report will be released next Monday and can be verified publicly. This type of document allows anyone to check that a platform holds enough assets to back its customers’ deposits.
The Role of Hot and Cold Wallets
The CEO explained that the attack hit one of the company’s so-called “hot wallets,” internet-connected digital wallets that allow cryptocurrency transactions to be carried out quickly.
Teng stressed, however, that the vast majority of user assets are held in “cold wallets,” storage systems that remain disconnected from the network and are therefore far less vulnerable. He said funds are only moved to a hot wallet when a customer requests a withdrawal.
The Investigation Remains Open
According to Teng, the attack was not the work of a single individual. Initially, suspicions pointed to a link with the compromise of a laptop. As the investigation progressed, however, other points of unauthorized access to the platform’s systems came to light.
The executive added that the attackers used a self-destruct mechanism that erased their tools and traces of their activity while the attack was still underway, significantly complicating efforts to track their movements.
In addition, to obtain the authorization needed to execute transactions, those responsible used the EIP-7702 protocol, a feature that allows certain capabilities of a crypto wallet to be delegated.
A Challenge to Trust in the Sector
By pledging to absorb the losses in full and promising transparency through a proof of reserves, Binance is seeking to contain the reputational damage from one of the largest thefts in the history of the crypto ecosystem. The findings of the investigation and the public verification of its reserves will be decisive in the coming days in determining whether it can restore its users’ trust.
