Binance covers $6.3B hack losses via SAFU, withdrawals paused 48hrs
Binance suffered a security breach involving approximately $6.3 billion in unauthorized withdrawal transactions, traced to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop. The exchange pledged full coverage through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company reserves, stating no wallet private keys were leaked. Blockchain partners helped freeze roughly $3 billion of the stolen assets on-chain.
Deposits remain operational, but withdrawals are suspended while Binance overhauls its withdrawal service—a process expected to complete within 48 hours. Binance Alpha trading (CEX Buy Token, Alpha Instant, prediction markets) is also temporarily halted. Law enforcement and blockchain intelligence firms are tracing the remaining funds and identifying attackers.
For Nigerian users, this means your funds on Binance are insured via SAFU, but you cannot withdraw for the next ~48 hours. The exchange will publish a technical post-mortem and updated Proof of Reserves after remediation. This breach adds to recent high-profile cyberattacks on global firms including PwC, Stryker, and AI company Anthropic.
If you hold significant crypto on Binance, do you trust SAFU's track record to cover this, or will you move assets to cold storage once withdrawals resume?