Binance says CFO handover was planned before $6.3B hot-wallet breach

Binance co-CEO Yi He says the exchange's CFO handover was set in motion well before hackers hit its hot wallets. The transition plan had been running through the prior half year, she said, putting the succession ahead of the Oct. 29 breach. Kaiser Ng is leaving after more than five years at Binance, and Justin Yek — who ran strategic finance and corporate development at Airwallex — is lined up to take the CFO seat. Binance has not said when Ng goes or when Yek starts.

The breach itself was timestamped: Binance says its hot wallets were compromised at 4:05 p.m. ET (20:05 UTC) on Oct. 29. Its first estimate put token losses at roughly $6.3 billion. By Tuesday, Nov. 3, the exchange had sized the affected virtual assets at about $6.34 billion.

Recovery figures came with that update. Binance said about $2.85 billion had been frozen or intercepted by Nov. 3. It also said it had topped up 98% of affected token assets as of that date and would absorb the financial impact itself. Those three numbers — affected assets, frozen or intercepted funds, and the replenishment rate — track different things and do not add up to a final net loss.

Binance said its investigation is still open.