Binance reopens withdrawals for 85 more coins; ADA, LTC available only on BNB Smart Chain

Binance began the second phase of restoring withdrawals suspended after the hack, covering 85 coins on nine networks, including BNB Smart Chain (BSC), Ethereum and Solana. In its "Recovery Update #6" notice on Nov. 3, the exchange said it would reopen the 103 network-asset pairs in sequence from 1 p.m. KST that day. By about 8:30 p.m. KST, Binance's network status data showed 82 of them open.

Binance's hot wallets, the internet-connected wallets used to process withdrawals, were breached early on Oct. 30 KST, and about $6.3 billion worth of assets was drained. Binance began the first phase of withdrawal reopenings on Nov. 1 across 15 networks, for assets including BTC, ETH and USDT; this is the second phase. Deposits stayed open throughout.

31 on BSC, 38 on Ethereum, native networks still closed

The phase-two assets listed in the notice are as follows. Binance said it is prioritizing tokens based on user demand over the past week and restoring each pair after completing security checks.

Withdrawals for all bStocks, the tokenized stocks offered by Binance, are also being reopened. As of about 8:30 p.m. KST, the 21 pairs still closed were 18 on BSC, including stablecoins such as USD1, XUSD, U and TUSD as well as ZEC, DOT, LINK, SHIB, HBAR, FET and BONK, plus NIL on Ethereum, CHIP on Arbitrum and WCT on Optimism.

The network matters. For ADA, LTC, XLM and NEAR, only the tokens used on BSC were opened this time; withdrawals on the native Cardano, Litecoin, Stellar and NEAR networks were still closed at the same time. Across Binance as a whole, 111 of 1,448 withdrawal pairs were open.

Users can now verify proof of reserves themselves

In "Recovery Update #5" on Nov. 2, Binance said it had completed the zero-knowledge proof for its proof-of-reserves (PoR) snapshot taken at 00:00 UTC on Oct. 31. Users holding any of 10 tokens, namely BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC, can use the verifier tool on the PoR website to check that their balances are backed by exchange assets at a minimum of 1:1. Users download the tool and run it locally on their own computers.

Binance plans to take a new snapshot covering more tokens on Nov. 4 and estimated that generating the zero-knowledge proof would take about 40 to 50 hours. Loss coverage stood at 95%, unchanged from Nov. 1. Binance said the remaining 5% involves less liquid tokens outside the 10 covered assets, which will take longer to buy in the required amounts.

Half of SAFU's bitcoin has been spent

The Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) was also used to cover losses. From the bitcoin wallet Binance publishes as its SAFU address, 7,500 BTC left in two transactions at 11:45 p.m. and 11:51 p.m. KST on Oct. 31, and the balance on the night of Nov. 3 was 7,500 BTC. At Binance's price that night of $77,195, that is about $580 million. CoinDesk reported that the wallet had held about 15,000 BTC since February, when the fund was converted from stablecoins to bitcoin.

According to DefiLlama, Binance's net outflow over the past week was about $11.97 billion as of the night of Nov. 3. Assets in the exchange's wallets totaled about $128.1 billion at the same time.

What to check before moving coins to or from Binance

Upbit's Oct. 30 notice cautioning users about withdrawals to Binance had not been lifted as of 8:30 p.m. KST on Nov. 3. Upbit, a Korean exchange, has said it may restrict withdrawals to Binance if needed.

At 8:30 p.m. KST on Nov. 3, bitcoin traded at 103,993,000 won on Upbit, XRP at 1,695 won and ADA at 255 won. The kimchi premium (the gap between prices on Korean exchanges and global markets) for bitcoin between Upbit and Binance was about 0.2%, and BNB was at $698 on Binance, down 0.8% over 24 hours. The funding rate on bitcoin perpetual futures was 0.01%, a normal level.