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1. Binance says the hack losses are covered
Binance proof of reserves data viewed on November 13, 2026, shows the exchange holding about 1.06 billion more Tether (USDT) in onchain wallets than its customers' net balances, a day after Binance said on November 12 that it had fully covered assets hit in its October 29 hack. The zero-knowledge proof that would let users verify their own balances has not yet been released.
The announcement closes, at least on Binance's own account, a recovery effort that began shortly after the security incident, which involved digital assets the exchange valued at roughly $6.34 billion. The hack has been attributed to North Korea.
Binance shared the update in a post on X, stating that it had "completed coverage of assets impacted in the security incident" and that a fresh Proof of Reserves snapshot had been published. Yi He, a senior Binance executive and co-founder, reposted the statement with a single-word comment: "100%."
2. Why users cannot verify the claim yet
Customers have no way to independently confirm the full-coverage claim for now. The tool that would allow them to do so, a zero-knowledge proof tied to the new snapshot, has not been generated.
Binance said that once the proof is ready, users will be able to check that their assets are backed at a ratio of at least 1:1. The November 12 post, however, did not say when that would happen.
Until then, the reserve figures on the exchange's website reflect Binance's own accounting. They are useful as an indication of where the company says it stands, but they fall short of the cryptographic assurance that proof-of-reserves systems are designed to deliver.
3. What is Binance proof of reserves?
Binance proof of reserves is a public disclosure that compares the crypto the exchange holds in its wallets with the total amount its customers are owed, asset by asset. The goal is to show that the platform holds at least as much of each token as users have deposited, so that every customer could, in principle, withdraw at the same time.
Proof-of-reserves reporting became an industry fixture after the collapse of FTX in late 2022 exposed how little customers knew about whether their exchange actually held their funds. Since then, major trading platforms have published periodic snapshots to reassure users.
A reserve ratio is the simplest output of these reports. A ratio of 100% means the exchange's onchain holdings exactly match customer balances for that asset. Anything above 100% indicates a surplus, while a figure below 100% would mean the platform holds less than it owes.
4. What the reserve page shows today
As of November 13, Binance's reserve page listed a ratio of 100.05% for Bitcoin (BTC), 100.02% for Ether (ETH) and 104.34% for USDT. Each ratio compares the exchange's onchain wallet balance for that asset with the net account balances of its customers.
The bitcoin and ether figures sit only fractionally above full backing, which suggests the exchange has replenished those assets to roughly the level customers are owed. The USDT ratio is noticeably higher, leaving a cushion of around 1.06 billion tokens above what users hold on the platform.
That surplus comes with a caveat. The onchain USDT figure includes about 306.7 million tokens held with third-party custodians rather than in wallets Binance controls directly. Assets held through custodians can be legitimate reserves, but they are harder for outside observers to trace on a blockchain explorer than funds sitting in exchange-controlled addresses.
5. Why the USDT surplus stands out
The gap between the USDT ratio and the figures for bitcoin and ether is the most striking detail on the page. A surplus of about 1.06 billion tokens represents roughly 4% more than customers hold on the platform, compared with buffers measured in hundredths of a percentage point for the two largest cryptocurrencies.
Tether is the most widely used stablecoin on centralized exchanges, serving as the main settlement currency for a large share of crypto trading pairs. Because each token is designed to track the U.S. dollar, a USDT buffer functions much like a cash reserve: it is the most direct way for an exchange to hold extra liquidity without taking on price risk from volatile assets.
The reserve page does not explain why the USDT surplus is larger than the others, and Binance did not address the difference in its announcement. What the figures do show is that, by the exchange's own accounting, its stablecoin holdings now exceed what customers are owed by a meaningful margin, even after setting aside the roughly 306.7 million tokens held with third-party custodians.
For customers, the practical takeaway is that the asset most commonly used to move in and out of trades appears to carry the thickest cushion. Whether that cushion is fully verifiable is a separate question, and one that depends on the proof Binance has yet to publish.
6. How Binance refilled the losses from its own funds
The refill was carried out in stages after the October 29 hack. In a recovery update published on November 2, Binance said it had replenished the affected assets for the 10 tokens included in its October 31 snapshot, using company funds rather than customer money.
That same update cited a later figure indicating that about 95% of the impacted amount had been covered at that point. Binance said it would absorb the loss itself instead of passing it on to users, a commitment that the November 12 announcement now presents as fulfilled.
The November 2 update was accompanied by a zero-knowledge proof for the October 31 snapshot, giving customers a way to verify their balances as they stood at that date. The company has not yet published an equivalent proof covering the more recent snapshot that underpins its claim of full coverage.
7. Frozen funds and the open questions
Some of the stolen assets have been stopped before the attackers could move them. Binance's incident report said roughly $2.85 billion of the stolen funds had been frozen or intercepted, a figure the exchange described as still subject to verification.
Frozen funds matter for Binance's balance sheet. Any assets that are eventually recovered could offset part of the cost the exchange has absorbed by refilling customer balances from its own resources. The verification caveat, however, means that the final recovered amount is not yet settled.
The timing of the next proof is also uncertain. In its November 2 update, Binance estimated that generating the proof for the following snapshot, which was planned for November 4, would take between 40 and 50 hours. Whether that proof was completed has not been confirmed, and the November 12 announcement gave no date for the proof tied to the latest snapshot.
8. How a zero-knowledge proof protects customers
A zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic method that allows one party to show a statement is true without revealing the underlying data. In the context of exchange reserves, it lets each customer confirm that their balance has been counted in the total liabilities figure without exposing the balances of any other user.
The approach addresses two weaknesses of simpler disclosures. A wallet snapshot alone shows what an exchange holds but says nothing about what it owes. A plain list of customer balances would reveal what it owes but would compromise privacy. A zero-knowledge proof connects the two, giving users mathematical assurance that liabilities have not been understated while keeping individual account data confidential.
Earlier generations of reserve reporting often relied on a Merkle tree, a data structure that bundles every customer balance into a single cryptographic fingerprint. Users could check that their own balance was included, but the method offered weaker guarantees that no account had been left out or recorded with a negative balance. Zero-knowledge proofs were adopted across the industry to close that gap, adding a mathematical check that the totals were assembled correctly.
That is why the missing proof matters. The reserve ratios on Binance's page only become meaningful once customers can confirm that the liabilities side of the calculation includes every account. Without the proof, the 104.34% USDT ratio and the near-100% figures for bitcoin and ether rest on the exchange's word.
9. Why the verification gap matters for the market
Binance is the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, and confidence in its solvency carries weight well beyond its own customer base. A hack of this scale at a platform of its size tests not only the company's finances but also trust in centralized exchanges more broadly.
By refilling the affected balances from its own funds and publishing reserve ratios at or above 100%, Binance is signaling that customers will not bear the cost of the breach. The point-in-time nature of reserve snapshots, though, means they capture a single moment rather than continuous backing, which is another reason users and analysts look for regular, verifiable proofs.
For now, the exchange's reserve page offers a picture that looks fully backed, with a sizable stablecoin buffer on top. The next step, the release of a zero-knowledge proof for the latest snapshot, is what would allow customers to move from taking Binance at its word to checking the numbers for themselves.
10. What happens next
The key milestone to watch is publication of the zero-knowledge proof for the snapshot that supports Binance's full-coverage claim. Binance has not given a date for it.
Observers will also be looking for confirmation of the roughly $2.85 billion in frozen or intercepted assets, which Binance has said is still being verified, and for any further detail on whether the proof planned for the November 4 snapshot was completed.
Until those pieces arrive, the reserve page remains the best available indicator of where Binance stands, and customers who want certainty about their own balances will need to wait for the cryptographic check the exchange has promised.