Binance faces $4.7B in withdrawals after North Korea hack, calls it 3% of assets

Binance has seen over $4.7 billion in customer withdrawals since resuming operations Sunday, following a North Korean hack described as the largest bank heist in history, though the exchange says this represents only 3% of its total assets. The exchange froze about $2.8 billion of the stolen funds and has covered 95% of losses using company money to buy replacement tokens, with the remaining 5% involving less liquid assets still being sourced. Binance paused withdrawals after the hack was detected Thursday and vowed to cover all losses, with its balance sheet still holding $157 billion in assets. The attack, possibly involving a compromised employee laptop, comes amid a surge in crypto hacks fueled by AI tools exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities. The FBI linked the heist to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, which is suspected of other major exchange attacks and funds roughly half of the country's missile program.