Binance has said that it plans to resume withdrawals in phases after covering 95% of the $6.3 billion worth of stolen tokens from its platform, in what is being viewed as the world's most elaborate digital heist.
The largest cryptocurrency exchange has said that it will restart phase 1 of withdrawals on Sunday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) linked the theft to North Korea.
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Binance said phase would start between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. GMT on Sunday and include bitcoin, ether, BNB, Solana, XRP, dogecoin and other tokens. On Saturday, the FBI had blamed the cyberattack on the North Korean state-sponsored unit known as TraderTraitor.
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Pyongyang has for years rejected allegations of using state-linked cyber units for espionage, financial theft and revenue, but has not commented on the development as of yet, according to a Reuters report.
Members of the unit were observed by law enforcement converting stolen assets into the cryptocurrency ethereum, the FBI highlighted in its statement, adding that it expects "further laundering" of the assets via the use of related technology.
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How did the Binance hack happen?
Binance's preliminary investigation suggests that the attackers gained access to the exchange's withdrawal systems and used them to make unauthorised transfers from its crypto wallets.
The exchange does not believe its private keys were compromised. Instead, attackers allegedly infiltrated a Binance engineer's laptop and used it to drain the company's 'hot' wallets, which are connected to the internet and used for transactions.
Binance initially suspected a compromised laptop but later identified additional points of breach. Co-CEO Richard Teng described the incident as a complex attack involving malicious software designed to erase traces of the hackers' activities.
Binance said customer funds remained safe and that it would cover the losses using company resources. The exchange has internally set aside around $6.34 billion for this purpose.
The company also operates a $1 billion bitcoin reserve fund, known as the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), to protect customers in the event of security breaches.
The incident has renewed concerns about the security of cryptocurrency exchanges and the risks involved in storing digital assets on platforms connected to the internet.
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