18,270 Bitcoin Tied to Binance Incident Splits Across 19 Wallets

Bitcoin (BTC) linked to Binance's security incident was split across 19 wallet addresses after leaving an exchange-linked hot wallet Oct. 29, as the exchange works to trace and recover assets.

The public Bitcoin ledger shows the transfer took place at 4:20 p.m. ET (20:20 UTC) Oct. 29. Seventeen addresses held 1,000 BTC each, while the other two held 832.5 BTC and 437.7 BTC. None of the 19 addresses had sent funds onward as of 12:23 a.m. ET (04:23 UTC) Oct. 30. The balances add up to about 18,270 BTC, worth roughly $1.4 billion at early Friday prices.

Binance estimated the incident's total impact at about $6.3 billion and said roughly $3 billion had been frozen on-chain. The exchange said it is working with law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners and would cover losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company funds.

Bitcoin has no central issuer able to freeze coins held in self-controlled wallets. Funds may be stopped if they reach a cooperating exchange or service.