Binance’s withdrawal sequel flips from exodus to $2.3B inflow—scam bait beware 🪤

Binance recorded $2.3 billion in net inflows over 24 hours as the exchange expanded cryptocurrency withdrawals following last week’s $6.3 billion hack, reversing more than $7 billion in net outflows on Monday. The exchange led centralized exchanges tracked by DefiLlama in net inflows, ahead of Bitfinex at about $280 million and Bitget at about $127 million, while OKX registered about $445 million.

“By 03:00 UTC, we are seeing hourly deposits exceed withdrawals, reflecting improving user activity and stabilizing flows,” Binance said Tuesday on X. Earlier, DefiLlama data showed net outflows of $2.57 billion on Monday, down from $6.1 billion the day before. During the first nine and a half hours after Binance reopened services on November 1, the exchange processed $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits, producing $3.64 billion in net outflows.

Binance plans to begin the second phase of withdrawals at 04:00 UTC on Tuesday, following its initial reopening on Nov. 1. “Like phase one, reopening will roll out progressively across the assets as security and readiness checks are completed,” Binance said. Tokens were prioritized according to user demand over the past week, with networks including Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana, XRP Ledger, Sui, Arbitrum, Optimism, Tron and Base included in the second phase. Deposits remain available.

Binance also reopened withdrawals for the US dollar, United Arab Emirates dirham, Vietnamese dong, Philippine peso and Indonesian rupiah, joining 23 other currencies already available. Withdrawals were restored for $BTC, $ETH, BNB, XRP, DOGE, USDT, USDC and other supported assets. According to Binance’s October 28 Proof of Reserves data, the exchange held $171 billion in total assets; the initial withdrawal wave represented 2.1% of reported holdings, while assets worth 47 times the net amount withdrawn remained. For comparison, FTX recorded $6 billion in net withdrawals over 72 hours before suspending customer withdrawals in November 2022.

The exchange said it had replaced approximately 95% of the affected assets, with the remaining 5% consisting of less liquid tokens requiring additional market and over-the-counter purchases. Binance pledged to cover losses using company resources and protection funds without passing them on to customers. It suspended withdrawals on Friday after Thursday’s $6.3 billion hack, restored them at 06:00 UTC on Sunday and reopened some fiat withdrawals on Monday as flows began stabilizing.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed the attack to North Korea on Saturday, but North Korea denied responsibility Tuesday. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, called the allegation “absurd rhetoric.” Binance warned that scammers could impersonate the exchange during the phased reopening by offering accelerated withdrawals, sell priority processing, help users claim compensation or direct them toward a purported “Binance vault.” “Anyone promising to expedite it for a fee is scamming you,” Binance said.