Binance says it holds $5B in matching tokens to cover hack losses

Binance said Friday that had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses from its hack, with $5 billion already in held in the same tokens stolen.

“The $5 billion is held in the exact token assets that are required. These assets are in Binance custody,” a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

Binance did not disclose when it acquired the assets.

The spokesperson declined to disclose the wallet addresses, citing security reasons, but said that the holdings would appear in the exchange’s next proof-of-reserves report, which shows the assets it holds to back customer balances.

Binance said it provides weekly reports on its company funds to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), the financial regulator of Abu Dhabi Global Market in the United Arab Emirates. The exchange said the requirement predated the hack.

The exchange has yet to confirm which tokens it still needs to purchase, when those purchases will be completed or how much stolen crypto has been recovered.

The exchange confirmed Friday that it had suffered a $6.3 billion hack, the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs said funds were drained from Binance wallets across 10 blockchains on Thursday and attributed the attack to North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor.

Binance said about $3 billion in affected assets had been frozen with help from blockchain partners. Those assets were excluded from the company funds set aside to cover losses.