LAGOS, Nigeria — Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has begun restoring withdrawals in phases after a cyberattack in which about $6.3 billion in digital assets was stolen.
The company disclosed the restoration in a security incident update posted on its official account on Sunday, November 1, 2026. The first phase of withdrawals was due to reopen between 6:00 and 9:00 in the morning, Greenwich Mean Time, after security assessments and precautionary measures.
The first phase covers 15 blockchain networks, with withdrawals becoming available progressively for several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Binance Coin, Solana, Ripple, Dogecoin and two of the largest stablecoins, Tether and Circle’s USDC, across supported networks.
Binance said it was prioritising tokens according to user demand over the past week, so that each network and asset pair could be restored with stability and security checks completed first. It warned that users could face temporary delays or longer processing times during the early rollout because of heavy traffic, and advised customers whose withdrawals fail to try again after a short while.
The attack took place on Thursday, October 29, 2026, when hackers compromised Binance’s hot wallets and initiated unauthorised withdrawals estimated at $6.3 billion. Binance’s initial investigation suggested the breach began with a compromised engineer’s laptop, which allowed the attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorised withdrawal transactions.
By Sunday, Binance said it had covered about 95% of the affected amount. The remaining 5% consists largely of less-liquid tokens that will take longer to source.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has attributed the attack to North Korean hackers. Binance and other cryptocurrency firms have worked with blockchain intelligence companies, law enforcement agencies and asset issuers to trace and freeze the stolen funds.
The incident is the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, far exceeding the $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit exchange in February 2025, also attributed to North Korean hackers. According to the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, the cryptocurrency industry recorded more than $3.4 billion in stolen digital assets between January and early December 2025, with the Bybit attack accounting for about $1.5 billion of that total.
For Nigerian users, the incident comes against a backdrop of regulatory difficulty. Binance discontinued its naira services in Nigeria in March 2024, including naira deposits, withdrawals and trading pairs. Users can still access their accounts. In April 2026, the Central Bank of Nigeria concluded its testimony in ongoing legal proceedings against the exchange, maintaining that it had conducted what it described as hidden operations in Nigeria without authorisation.
