Crypto exchange Binance has issued a number of updates on the $6.3 crypto heist that occurred overnight Thursday when its systems were hacked. The updates seem to be centered on assuring Binance clients that their individual holdings are safe, although the company has halted withdrawals for what looks like will be an extended period, likely (at least) 48 hours.

Binance said it has begun recovering affected assets for users, and continues to work with law enforcement, issuers, blockchain intelligence firms and industry partners to trace, freeze and recover additional funds.

Company funds reserved

The company has publicly committed to cover losses through company funds. Binance said it has already reserved over $6.34 billion of company funds to cover this incident. $5 billion of these funds are already held in the exact token assets that were impacted.

Buying token assets

Binance is completing the purchase of the remaining amount by buying token assets through market channels and OTC channels. The company is doing this to match the format of the remaining token assets and address any asset shortfalls. This step can take longer because some tokens may have low liquidity and OTC settlement also takes time. Binance will share more progress as soon as it can.

Frozen funds

These figures do not include frozen or protected assets, which remain subject to ongoing recovery and verification. Currently, Binance said that $3 billion has been frozen, with thanks to Binance’s industry partners. Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao gave a shoutout on X to a “quick freeze” from Tether (~$971m). and Circle (~$823m).

Working with law enforcement

Binance said it is working with partners and law enforcement to recover the frozen assets. It will continue to use company resources to cover confirmed shortfall, and will provide further verified updates as recovery efforts progress. Ultimately, all user funds will be verified publicly through Proof of Reserves.

Investigation update

Binance’s initial investigation suggested that the security incident may have involved a compromised laptop, however its subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach. This was a complex attack, and Binance said it is doing all it can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it.

Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng gave a more detailed explanation of the hack in a post on LinkedIn.

I want to speak to you directly about what happened.

Bottom line – your money is safe, and we’re covering every loss.

Our initial investigation suggests this security incident may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop. That gave an attacker access to a service container, where they submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

To be clear: the attacker did not simply use one engineer’s permissions, and this was not a single “one-click” action. It involved a more complex attack process. Our investigation has not attributed responsibility to any individual.

So far, we have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak.

Crypto prices

As the story continues to unfold, crypto prices continue to fall. Both Bitcoin and Ether are trading down today by more than 4%.