Binance Replenishes 90% After $6.3B Hack: India Guide

Binance has reached a new milestone in its response to the late-October security incident: the exchange says it has now replenished about 90 percent of the roughly $6.3 billion in crypto assets taken from its hot wallets, up from about 80 percent in its previous update. Ten of the assets its users hold most — Bitcoin, Ether, USDT, BNB, Solana, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and Zcash — are now described as fully backed at 100 percent, and a fresh proof-of-reserves snapshot has been taken. Withdrawals remain on track to reopen in phases from Sunday, 1 November.

For Indian users, this Binance 90 percent replenishment update is the clearest progress marker since withdrawals were paused. It is not the end of the story — about 10 percent of the loss is still being bought back, and the independently checkable proof is not due until 3 November — but it turns a vague promise into numbers and dates that users can actually follow. This guide explains what the new figures mean, what "fully backed" does and does not guarantee, how proof of reserves works in plain language, and what Indian users should check before moving any funds.

> Educational content only. This is not financial advice. Crypto markets are volatile — never invest money you can't afford to lose. This article explains a developing exchange incident in general terms; it is not advice about any individual's funds, exchange choice, or withdrawal decisions.

A Quick Recap: What Happened on 29 October

On the evening of 29 October 2026 (UTC), Binance said its hot wallets were compromised and that an attacker had moved roughly $6.3 billion in token assets across several blockchains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin and Tron. Its early findings pointed to a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, which may have given the attacker access to an internal service container used to submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions. Later updates said the investigation had found additional points of compromise beyond that laptop.

The exchange paused withdrawals while it rebuilt its withdrawal service and reviewed endpoint devices, cloud services, key management and transaction-signing systems. Around $3 billion in affected assets was frozen on-chain with the help of industry partners and law enforcement. Freezing is an important step, but it is not the same as recovery: frozen tokens cannot move further, but getting them back to the exchange and to users is a separate legal and technical process that takes time.

The incident also reached India directly. CoinDCX, which uses Binance as a liquidity provider for some futures products, temporarily moved its futures service to "reduce-only" mode, preventing users from opening new positions or increasing existing ones, while deposits and withdrawals on CoinDCX itself stayed available. And India's Enforcement Directorate had separately searched premises in Bengaluru and Madhya Pradesh on 27 October over alleged unauthorised cross-border crypto transfers — a different investigation, but one that has kept Indian crypto regulation in the headlines in the same week.

What Is New on 31 October

The 31 October update, reported the same day by CoinDesk, TokenPost, Cointime, Crypto Briefing and The Times of India (citing Reuters), contains five new facts that were not in the previous progress notice.

First, the headline figure moved from about 80 percent to about 90 percent. Binance said it has now replaced roughly 90 percent of the stolen crypto, and that it has set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the loss. The funding comes from three sources: its corporate treasury, a portion of its futures insurance fund, and a partial deployment of its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), which Binance said it expects to complete within 24 hours and then restore to around $1 billion.

Second, ten named assets are now fully backed. Binance listed Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), BNB, Solana (SOL), USD Coin (USDC), XRP, USD1, Ripple USD (RLUSD) and Zcash (ZEC) as backed at 100 percent. Four of the ten are dollar-pegged stablecoins — USDT, USDC, USD1 and RLUSD — and the rest mix the two largest crypto assets, Binance's own BNB token, SOL, XRP and ZEC. For most users, this is the list that matters: if you hold one of these ten, Binance is now saying the backing for your asset is complete.

Third, the remaining roughly 10 percent is explained, not hidden. Binance said the outstanding portion consists of other tokens outside the top ten, which are less liquid and may take longer to acquire in the required quantities through market and over-the-counter purchases. That is a useful distinction. A shortfall in a thinly traded token does not mean the same thing as a shortfall in Bitcoin or USDT, but it does mean holders of those smaller tokens may wait longer for their phase of the restart.

Fourth, a new proof-of-reserves snapshot has actually been taken. Binance completed the snapshot at 00:00 UTC on 31 October, and updated the reserves data on its website. This is a step beyond the previous notice, which only promised a snapshot within 12 hours with results due by 2 November. The snapshot records asset balances at that single moment in time.

Fifth, the timetable for independent verification is now specific. Generating the full cryptographic proof — using zero-knowledge proofs, which are expected to take roughly 40 to 50 hours of computing — is expected to be complete by 3 November. At that point, holders of the ten fully backed tokens should be able to verify for themselves that their balances are backed at least one-to-one. Until then, the snapshot is Binance's statement; from 3 November, it should become something users can check.

Withdrawals, meanwhile, remain on track to resume in phases from Sunday, 1 November, with specific arrangements to be announced separately. That date is still a target tied to security checks being completed, not a guarantee that every token and network will reopen at once.

What "Fully Backed" Means — and What It Does Not

The phrase "fully backed" sounds reassuring, and in this context it has a precise meaning: for each of the ten named assets, Binance says it now holds at least as much of that asset as it owes its customers in that asset. If every holder of Bitcoin on Binance asked to withdraw at the same moment, the exchange says it has enough Bitcoin to meet those requests. That is the core promise behind proof of reserves, and it is worth understanding clearly because it is also limited in specific ways.

A backing claim is about one asset at one moment in time. The snapshot taken at 00:00 UTC on 31 October shows balances at that instant. It does not show what happened the day before, and it cannot by itself prove that every past transaction was handled correctly. It also depends on the liabilities side of the picture being complete: backing is only meaningful if the exchange's reported customer balances are accurate and complete. That is exactly why the fuller proof due on 3 November matters — it is meant to let users confirm that their own balance is included in the liabilities Binance reports, rather than taking the total on trust.

Nor is proof of reserves a full audit of a company's finances. It does not examine every part of a business, every subsidiary, or every off-exchange obligation. It answers one focused question — are customer crypto balances backed by crypto assets on hand? — and it answers it for the assets and the moment in its scope. A clean proof-of-reserves result is a good sign on that question. It is not a clean bill of health for everything an exchange does, and it should not be read as one.

Finally, "fully backed" for the top ten does not mean the whole incident is resolved. About 10 percent of the loss, in less liquid tokens, is still being replenished. The technical post-mortem explaining exactly how the breach happened and what safeguards have been added has not yet been published. And attribution — investigators at TRM Labs and Chainalysis have assessed with high confidence that the North Korea-linked TraderTraitor group was responsible, while Binance itself has not named an attacker — remains an investigator assessment, not a formal government finding. None of these open items changes the backing figure for the top ten, but each of them is part of the full picture.

How Proof of Reserves Works, in Plain Language

Proof of reserves can sound technical, but the idea is simple. An exchange owes its customers crypto. Customers want to know the exchange actually holds that crypto, rather than having lent it out, lost it, or spent it. A proof-of-reserves exercise is the exchange's way of showing its work.

In the simplest version, the exchange publishes two things: a list of the wallet addresses it controls, so anyone can look on the blockchain and see the assets sitting there, and a total of what it owes customers. If the assets are at least as large as the amount owed, the exchange is backed. The complication is privacy: publishing every customer's individual balance would expose private financial information. So modern proof-of-reserves systems use cryptographic tools to solve that problem.

One tool is a Merkle tree, a structure that bundles many individual balances into a single fingerprint. Each user gets a small piece of evidence — a "Merkle path" — that proves their balance is included in the total, without revealing anyone else's balance. Another tool is a zero-knowledge proof, which lets the exchange prove a statement ("we hold at least this much, and your balance is counted") without revealing the underlying data. Binance says its full proof, due 3 November, will use this kind of cryptography, which is why it needs 40 to 50 hours of computing time to generate.

For a beginner, the practical takeaway is straightforward. When the proof appears, the useful checks are: does it cover the asset you hold? Does it let you verify your own balance, not just read a company total? Is the snapshot time stated clearly? And is there an independent party involved, or is it entirely self-reported? A proof that answers all four questions is far stronger than a headline that merely says reserves were published. If any of those answers is missing, treat the claim as provisional and keep watching.

What Indian Users Should Check Before Withdrawing

The days around a phased restart are when mistakes and scams cluster, so a short checklist applied calmly covers most of the risk.

Start with the official channel only. Binance has said users should rely only on its official channels for updates. That advice matters more than usual right now, because fake support accounts, fake "withdrawal help" services and phishing pages tend to appear within hours of any high-profile incident. No genuine support team will ask you to share a seed phrase, a password or a one-time code, and no genuine restart requires you to send funds to a new address first. Any message that creates urgency — "withdraw now or lose everything", "verify within one hour" — should be treated as a warning sign in itself.

Next, check the specific asset and network. When a phase opens, confirm that the token you hold and the network you plan to use are actually included, and that the withdrawal address and network match. Sending a token on the wrong network is one of the most common and least recoverable beginner errors, and it is more likely when users rush during a restart window. If anything about the route looks unfamiliar, wait and re-check rather than guessing. Holders of the ten fully backed assets are the most likely to see their phase open first; holders of smaller tokens in the remaining 10 percent should expect a longer wait, and a delay for one token is not by itself evidence of a new problem.

Then, consider how much to keep on any exchange. This incident, like the CoinDCX incident days earlier, underlines a distinction this site has stressed before: a blockchain network and a centralised exchange that holds your funds are two different things. The Bitcoin network was not reported to be compromised in this incident; the reported problem was inside the exchange's own systems. For funds you do not plan to trade soon, self-custody — holding crypto in a wallet you control, with a seed phrase stored offline and never shared — removes exchange risk entirely, though it replaces it with the responsibility of securing your own keys. There is no risk-free option, only a choice about which risk you prefer to carry, and that choice should be made deliberately, not in a panic during a restart.

Finally, keep the tax picture in mind. Moving crypto between your own wallets is not the same as selling it, but selling on an Indian exchange can trigger tax consequences. Tax note: crypto tax rules can change — the 30% rate and 1% TDS described here were current as of September 2026. Verify the latest rules before filing. If a restart prompts you to sell rather than simply withdraw, check the tax position first, and keep records of the transaction, including dates, amounts in INR, and the platform involved.

What Still Is Not Settled

Three things remain open even after a strong 31 October update, and each deserves a date in your diary rather than a vague hope.

The remaining 10 percent. Binance is still buying back less liquid tokens through market and over-the-counter channels. There is no single date attached to completing that portion, because buying large quantities of thinly traded tokens quickly can itself move their prices. Holders of those tokens should follow Binance's phased announcements for their specific asset rather than assuming the 1 November restart covers everything.

The verification proof on 3 November. Until the full cryptographic proof appears, the 90 percent and fully-backed claims rest on Binance's own reporting, corroborated by press coverage but not yet independently checkable by users. The 3 November proof is the moment those claims become testable. If it arrives on time, with per-user verification for the ten assets, it will materially strengthen the story. If it slips, or if its scope is narrower than promised, that is itself important information.

The post-mortem. The technical findings and the fuller post-mortem promised after the second progress notice will say more about lasting safety than any funding figure can. A funding figure answers the question "can users be made whole?" A post-mortem answers the question "will this happen again?" Both matter, and the second takes longer to judge. Watch for it in the days after withdrawals resume, and read it for specific safeguards — changes to device security, signing workflows and withdrawal controls — rather than for general reassurance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Binance's 90% replenishment mean users get 90% of their funds back?

No. The 90 percent figure describes how much of the roughly $6.3 billion loss Binance says it has replaced in matching assets, not a payout percentage for users. Binance has repeatedly said it will absorb the full financial impact through its SAFU fund, futures insurance fund and company treasury, with no losses passed on to users. In practice, what matters to a user is whether their own balance is available for withdrawal when their token's phase reopens, not the headline percentage.

Which Binance assets are now fully backed?

According to Binance's 31 October update, as reported by CoinDesk, TokenPost and The Times of India, ten assets are now backed at 100 percent: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), BNB, Solana (SOL), USD Coin (USDC), XRP, USD1, Ripple USD (RLUSD) and Zcash (ZEC). These are the assets most of its users hold. The remaining roughly 10 percent of the loss sits in other, less liquid tokens that Binance says may take longer to buy back in the required quantities.

How can an ordinary user verify Binance's proof of reserves?

A proof-of-reserves snapshot records the exchange's asset balances at one moment in time, in this case 00:00 UTC on 31 October 2026. The fuller verification proof, expected by 3 November, is meant to let individual users check cryptographically that their own balance is included in the exchange's reported liabilities and that backing is at least one-to-one. Until that proof appears, the snapshot is a company statement rather than something users can independently check, so read its scope carefully when it lands.

The Bottom Line

Binance's 31 October update is the first point in this incident where the numbers have moved in a clearly measurable way: from about 80 percent replenished to about 90 percent, from a promised snapshot to a snapshot actually taken, and from a general backing pledge to a named list of ten assets at 100 percent. Withdrawals are still targeted to reopen in phases from 1 November, and the independently checkable proof is still due on 3 November — two dates worth watching more closely than any headline.

For Indian users, the right posture over the next few days is watchful rather than hurried. Follow Binance's official announcements phase by phase, verify the asset and network before any withdrawal, ignore any message that asks for a seed phrase or an urgent transfer, and use the pause to decide deliberately how much of your crypto you want to keep on any exchange at all. The restart, when it comes, will reward the users who checked twice — and the proof due on 3 November will reward the users who read past the headline.

Keep Learning

• Binance Security Incident: What Happened and What Indian Users Should Know
• Binance Withdrawals Restart: What Indian Users Must Know
• What Is Proof of Reserves? A Beginner's Guide for India