Coinbase said it was unaffected by Binance’s $6.3 billion security breach and outlined its custody safeguards, while Binance reported that it had replenished approximately 98% of the affected assets. Both exchanges’ statements describe their own security and recovery measures; they should be read with that attribution intact.
Coinbase’s custody claims
In a blog post published Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, Coinbase said it keeps more than 99% of customer assets in cold storage. It also described distributed private keys, withdrawal limits and anomaly detection as protections against unauthorized transfers.
The U.S. exchange said customer assets are held 1:1, remain customer property and are not lent or used without customer authorization. It also said it would continue investing in security as advances in artificial intelligence change the threat landscape.
These statements outline Coinbase’s approach, rather than establishing that its safeguards eliminate the risk of a breach.
Binance’s recovery update—and what remained unfinished
Binance was exploited for $6.3 billion on Oct. 29, 2026. On Tuesday, the exchange said hackers had used a fake job interview and an internal AI tool to assist the breach.
In its Wednesday update, Binance said it had:
- Replenished approximately 98% of the affected assets.
- Expanded its Proof of Reserves coverage to 44 tokens, from 10 previously.
- Begun acquiring the remaining 2% through market and over-the-counter channels, with lower liquidity making those purchases take longer.
The exchange also said a new zero-knowledge proof was expected to take 50 to 60 hours to generate. That was an estimate, not a report that the proof had been completed. Likewise, the replenishment figure did not amount to a claim that all affected assets had been restored.
Binance cofounder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said Tuesday that crypto companies needed AI-based defenses and an industry alliance to share lessons and freeze stolen funds faster. Those were proposed responses, not evidence that such an alliance was already operating.
Original report published Nov. 5, 2026, at 00:57:39 UTC+8. Read the original article at The Block.