Binance Reopens Withdrawals After $6.3B Hack: Tracking Your Risk

Binance reopened customer withdrawals in phases on Sunday 1 November 2026, CoinDesk reported, after the record $6.3 billion hack later linked to North Korea. Anyone holding coins on the exchange can now move funds again, though the rollout started with bitcoin and later tokens were still coming back online.

What happened with the Binance withdrawal reopening?

Binance restarted customer withdrawals in phases on Sunday 1 November 2026, beginning with bitcoin, after the record $6.3 billion hack now blamed on North Korea, according to CoinDesk. The exchange said it had replaced roughly 95% of the stolen assets before reopening access.

The Financial Times reported on the same Sunday that Binance restarted customer withdrawals after the $6.3bn heist, with the remaining coins to be rolled out in later phases. For a holder, the mechanical change is simple: the balance that sat behind a withdrawal pause is movable again, bitcoin first.

• Phase 1: bitcoin (BTC-USD) withdrawals reopened first.
• Later phases: other assets to follow on a staggered schedule.
• What is still unknown: the exact timing for every token, and the final accounting on the last ~5% of assets.

This post explains how to track what you hold on an exchange versus in self-custody, how to see crypto and stocks in one place, and how price-level alerts fit around an event like this. It does not tell you what to do with your coins.

Exchange balance vs self-custody: what is the difference?

An exchange balance is a claim on the exchange, while self-custody means you hold the private keys yourself. When coins sit on Binance, Bybit or Coinbase, the exchange controls the keys and you hold an entry in their ledger. A hack, a pause or an insolvency affects that claim directly.

Self-custody coins live in a wallet whose keys only you control, such as a hardware wallet or a software wallet with a seed phrase. A breach of an exchange does not touch them. This is the practical meaning of "not your keys, not your coins".

Why this distinction matters after a hack

The Binance event shows the mechanical difference in real time. Withdrawal access is an exchange-side control: it can be paused and reopened, as it was here. Self-custody access cannot be paused by a third party because no third party holds the keys.

• Counterparty risk: present on an exchange balance, absent in self-custody.
• Convenience: higher on an exchange for trading, lower for cold storage.
• Recovery: an exchange can replace stolen assets, as Binance says it did for ~95%; a lost self-custody seed phrase has no backstop.

For a deeper walk-through of what this incident exposed about where coins sit, our earlier piece on what exchange custody risk means after the $6.3B Binance hack covers the custody mechanics in full.

How do you track crypto on exchanges versus in a wallet?

Track exchange balances and self-custody coins as separate portfolios so you can see counterparty exposure at a glance. PortfolioTrackr gives each connected broker or exchange its own read-only portfolio, and that portfolio does not count toward your portfolio limit.

For crypto specifically, Bybit connects directly on every plan, including the free trial. The SnapTrade bridge connects 42 brokers and needs a paid Pro or Lifetime plan. Many crypto venues are not sync targets at all, which is where manual methods come in.

Adding self-custody coins

PortfolioTrackr does not connect to crypto wallets or read a wallet address, so self-custody coins are added by hand, by CSV, or from a screenshot. That is deliberate: a tracker that never touches your keys cannot leak them.

• Manual entry: type the coin, quantity and your cost.
• CSV import: bulk-load a spreadsheet of holdings, available on every plan including the free trial and Starter.
• Screenshot: Smart & Easy Import reads a wallet screenshot, on every plan.

Keeping your Binance balance in one portfolio and your cold-wallet BTC in another means the share of your crypto sitting on any single exchange is visible immediately. If you want the full method, our guide on tracking stocks and crypto together in one app walks through the setup.

Can you see crypto and stocks in one portfolio view?

Yes. The ALL PORTFOLIOS combined view sits on every plan for anyone with more than one portfolio, and it merges stocks, ETFs and crypto into a single picture. This is the point of a multi-asset tracker: the Binance balance, the cold-wallet coins and your equities add up in one place.

PortfolioTrackr covers 100 stock exchanges and converts into 100 currencies for display, so a Nairobi-listed stock, a US ETF and BTC-USD can all report in your home currency. A broker screenshot, a CSV of self-custody coins and a direct Bybit sync can all feed the same view.

• Equities: connect Alpaca or Interactive Brokers directly, or import by screenshot or CSV.
• Crypto on an exchange: connect Bybit directly, or add Binance by CSV or screenshot.
• Self-custody crypto: add by hand, CSV or screenshot.

If you are weighing a dedicated tracker against a DIY sheet for this, our portfolio tracker versus spreadsheet comparison lays out where each one breaks down.

What alerts can you set around exchange counterparty risk?

PortfolioTrackr alerts are price levels only, so there is no "exchange risk" or "counterparty" alert and no balance-change alert. What you can do is set price targets and a stop-loss level on a crypto position, and a price-above or price-below level on a watchlist entry.

For a holding you can set Target 1, Target 2 and a stop-loss. PortfolioTrackr reports status against your own levels: still below target, Target 1 reached, Target 2 reached, or stop-loss level reached. It reports status; it does not tell you to buy or sell.

How often prices are checked

Crypto levels are checked once a minute, around the clock, because crypto markets never close. Stocks, ETFs and futures are checked once a minute while their market is open and skipped at night, at weekends and on exchange holidays.

• Delivery: email, WhatsApp, Telegram and push on every plan; SMS on Pro and Lifetime.
• Speed: you hear within a minute of your level being hit.
• Watchlist: 10 tickers on the free trial and Starter, 50 on Pro and Lifetime.

A recurring alert repeats for the same target at most once every five minutes. You can set these on the alerts page for any position or watchlist entry.

Exchange balance vs self-custody at a glance

The table below compares the two ways of holding crypto on the factors that matter after an exchange hack. Neither is a recommendation; it is how each behaves mechanically.

What can a Binance holder check right now?

Checking your own exposure is not advice; deciding for you would be. After the reopening, a holder can look at a few concrete things in their own records.

• Exposure share: what percentage of your total crypto sits on Binance versus self-custody, visible once each is its own portfolio.
• Your levels: whether your BTC-USD position is still below target, at Target 1 or Target 2, or at your stop-loss level.
• Alerts: whether you have a price alert set at all on the coins you hold on an exchange.
• Cost records: whether your cost basis for each coin is logged, which matters for any future tax report.

For context on how North Korea-linked crypto theft is being pursued, our write-up on the Treasury sanctions over North Korean crypto laundering covers the enforcement side.

The bottom line

Binance reopened withdrawals in phases on Sunday 1 November 2026 after the $6.3 billion hack, starting with bitcoin and saying it had replaced about 95% of stolen assets, per CoinDesk and the Financial Times. The event is a plain reminder that an exchange balance is a claim that can be paused, while self-custody coins cannot be.

With PortfolioTrackr you can keep each exchange and each wallet as its own read-only or manual portfolio, see them beside your stocks in the ALL PORTFOLIOS view across 100 exchanges and 100 currencies, and set price-level alerts checked once a minute, around the clock for crypto. The tracker reports where you stand against your own targets. What you do next is yours.

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