Key Highlights
- South Korea’s Financial Services Commission held an emergency security meeting with major domestic crypto exchanges on November 2.
- Representatives from Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone participated in discussions on security systems and user asset protection.
- Korean exchanges are required to keep at least 80% of customer virtual assets in cold wallets, with reported ratios ranging from the low 80s to 99%.
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) held an emergency security meeting with major domestic cryptocurrency exchanges on November 2, 2026, following a large-scale theft at Binance.
According to a local report, the FSC summoned representatives from exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb, and Coinone. Officials reviewed the Binance incident and assessed the security systems of domestic platforms. Discussions focused on measures to protect user assets, including increasing the proportion of cryptocurrencies held in cold wallets. These wallets store assets offline, keeping them disconnected from external networks.
Under existing regulations, South Korean exchanges must maintain at least 80% of customers’ virtual assets in cold wallets. Reported ratios among operators range from the low 80s to as high as 99%.
The FSC has scheduled another security meeting for Thursday with the Financial Supervisory Service, the Financial Security Institute, and representatives of the country’s five major commercial banks.
What happened in the Binance hack?
On October 29, 2026, approximately $6.3 billion in digital assets was stolen from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The incident has been described as the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, surpassing the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. Blockchain analytics firms, including TRM Labs and Chainalysis, reached the same conclusion based on on-chain data and other intelligence.
Binance’s initial assessment pointed to a possible compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop that allowed access to a service container and unauthorized withdrawal transactions.
Subsequent reviews identified additional points of breach. No evidence of private key leakage from wallets was reported. The theft occurred across multiple blockchains, with the largest amounts taken from Ethereum and Bitcoin. Partners froze roughly $3 billion of the stolen assets.
Binance said it would cover all customer losses using its own resources. The exchange set aside approximately $6.34 billion, including assets already matched to the stolen tokens, and reported that it had covered most of the losses by purchasing replacement assets. Sourcing the remaining less-liquid tokens could take longer.
Binance suspended withdrawals after the incident and resumed them on a phased basis beginning around November 1.
Customers withdrew several billion dollars during the initial period after withdrawals resumed. Depending on the measurement window, reported net outflows ranged from $3.6 billion to $4.7 billion, representing a few percent of the exchange’s total assets. Deposits also continued during this period.
Industry response to the incident
Protocols and services have taken steps to restrict movement of funds associated with addresses linked to the theft.
Binance has continued working with law enforcement agencies, security firms, and industry partners to trace and recover the stolen assets. The exchange has also updated its proof-of-reserves processes following the incident.
The emergency meeting in South Korea forms part of the broader regulatory response to the incident in a major Asian cryptocurrency market. Domestic exchanges handle substantial trading volumes, making platform security and customer asset protection important regulatory priorities.
Officials focused on reviewing existing security systems and cold-wallet practices already mandated under local regulations. No changes to those requirements were announced during Monday’s meeting. Further discussions are scheduled for later in the week.
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