Binance says SHIB reserves were 100.04% covered after $6.34B hack

$6.34 billion is the loss Binance disclosed from an Oct. 29 attack, and its Nov. 12 proof-of-reserves snapshot still showed 100.04% coverage of clients’ Shiba Inu holdings.

The exchange said it “fully backs the balances of its clients.” The final results of its unscheduled report came two weeks after hackers took funds across 10 blockchains in 20 minutes, including nearly 500 billion SHIB. The cited material did not name the 10 blockchains or provide a chain-level reconciliation of the loss.

What did the reserve snapshot measure?

Binance took the snapshot at 00:00 UTC on Nov. 12 and also ran an additional reserve snapshot at Bitcoin block height 975493 after the attack. The report said major assets beyond SHIB were fully covered.

For SHIB, users’ net account balances totaled 50.67 trillion tokens. Binance reported 50.69 trillion SHIB in wallets, including 50.68 trillion at its own addresses and 7.46 billion with third-party custodians.

The material did not explain whether those totals were rounded or provide a token-level reconciliation. The reported ratio nevertheless indicates that exchange-held SHIB exceeded client balances at the snapshot, although only slightly.

Takeaway: The SHIB reserve claim showed a narrow reported surplus, not a broad test of every asset or liability.

Which assets changed before Nov. 12?

Compared with the Nov. 4 check, user balances and coverage changed as follows:

• BTC: User balances rose 0.35% to 687,912 BTC. Coverage reached 100.05%.
• ETH: User balances rose 1.04% to 3.48 million ETH. Binance described ETH as fully covered but gave no separate ratio.
• BNB: User balances rose 1.03% to 42.95 million BNB. Binance also described BNB as fully covered without a separate ratio.
• USDT: User balances fell 3.68% to 24.3 billion USDT. Its 104.34% coverage ratio was the report’s highest.

These figures measure changes in recorded client balances between two dates, not the cause of each movement. Binance did not provide a deposit or withdrawal breakdown.

Takeaway: Major assets were presented as overcovered, although only BTC and USDT received explicit ratios in the material.

What does Arkham’s wallet count add?

Arkham Intelligence tracked 58.82 trillion SHIB in known Binance wallets, equal to 5.88% of total supply and worth $251.16 million. That count exceeded the proof-of-reserves total by 8.13 trillion SHIB, or $34.7 million.

Binance said its report covers customer deposits and coins kept to back them, but excludes the exchange’s own funds. Based on Arkham’s data, Binance held about 16% more SHIB than it owed clients; the material did not reconcile wallet holdings against every liability.

Arkham ranked Binance third among exchanges by SHIB holdings. Only three addresses or entities held more:

• Burn address: 410.44 trillion SHIB, or 41.04% of supply.
• Coinbase: 74.53 trillion SHIB.
• Upbit: 64.14 trillion SHIB.

Below Binance, Robinhood held 57.12 trillion SHIB, followed by Crypto.com with 34.95 trillion and Bithumb with 16.74 trillion. At press time, SHIB traded at $0.00000426, providing the valuation context for Arkham’s dollar figures.

Takeaway: The wallet gap may reflect Binance’s corporate holdings, but the cited data does not establish how much is otherwise unencumbered.

What remains unverified?

Although Binance called the report final, it said the proof-of-reserves system was “still computing the final Merkle Root Hash using zk-SNARKs.” Once that calculation finishes, users should be able to log into their profiles and check that their balances appear in the overall ledger.

Until completion, the published ratios remain Binance’s own assertion, and the customer-facing verification route remains unavailable. A Nov. 12 snapshot cannot establish conditions after that date, and Binance gave no completion timetable.

Takeaway: The next operational checkpoint is completion of the Merkle root calculation, after which account-level checks should become available; without a timetable, users have no stated verification deadline.