Binance customers pulled $3.64 billion from the exchange on Nov. 1, 2026, CNBC reported1. The exchange had reopened withdrawals that same day, after freezing them since the Oct. 29 hack. That sum was 2.1% of the $171 billion Binance held before the hack. Hackers tied to North Korea stole $6.3 billion from Binance's hot wallets on Oct. 29. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao wrote, "98% choose to stay!"
Net outflows versus total assets held before the hack, in U.S. dollars
- Pulled after hack: $3.64B
- Stayed on Binance: $167.4B
Source: CNBC [1].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Pulled after hack | $3.64B |
| Stayed on Binance | $167.4B |
Crypto has run this experiment before. FTX's collapse pulled $6 billion in outflows over 72 hours in 2022. Circle's USDC lost $7 billion after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse in 20233. Binance's $3.64 billion looks small next to those two prior runs. Each time, most of the money came back once the panic passed.
Read fast, the number says depositors are choosing decentralized exchanges over Binance. Geoffrey Kendrick, Standard Chartered's global head of digital assets research, made that case to clients the next morning2. “The decentralized exchange (DEX) has never had any exploits, and the hack of the largest centralized exchange (CEX), in Binance, should see the ratio of DEX to CEX trading continue to increase,” he wrote.
Andy Cavanaugh, founder of the crypto media outlet The Rollup, framed the same shift in blunter terms on Oct. 31, two days after the breach. "Major vibe shift over the last 48 hours...Onchain >>> offchain," Cavanaugh wrote5.
The ratio Kendrick cites moved months before the theft, from 21.4% to 23.5% between the first and second quarters of 20264. CEX volume fell 27.9% in the same stretch. DEX volume fell only 26.5%. HashKey's Tim Sun and the Asia Web3 AI Association's Jay Koh both read the moment as calm trading3. “I would not necessarily withdraw everything from Binance, because centralized exchanges continue to play an important role in liquidity, trading and market access,” Koh said.
Their share of spot trading reached 23% in October 2026, AMBCrypto reported, up from 17.5% in all of 20255. Volume fell 55% over that span, from $588 billion to $262 billion. DEXs gained ground by shrinking slower than CEXs. Slower losses drove the gain, more than any surge in trading. Uniswap and PancakeSwap together claimed 36% of all DEX volume in October 2026.
Decentralized exchanges' share of combined spot trading volume with centralized exchanges, by year
- All of 2025
- October 2026
Source: AMBCrypto [5].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | All of 2025 | October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| DEX share of spot trading | 17.5% | 23% |
Uniswap alone ran 41.2% of the top 10 exchanges' $408.9 billion in second-quarter volume4. That beat its next three rivals combined, Standard Chartered found. Hayden Adams built that exchange so code settles every trade, putting each swap directly between two traders.
Chainalysis tracked North Korea's hackers using that design hours after the breach. The hackers swapped stablecoins that issuers can freeze for Ether6. Ether runs on Ethereum, the network Vitalik Buterin founded in 2015. The asset resists a freeze order from any company.
A market that runs on code still owes an answer: who pays, who profits, and who carries the risk? Binance's depositors paid first, with $6.3 billion gone in one breach. Uniswap's traders paid its fees whether the trader behind a swap was an investor or a thief seeking cover. “A hack at a crypto exchange is bank robbery at the speed of the internet, which creates an unstable risk profile for anyone responsible for other people's capital,” said Ari Redbord, TRM Labs' global head of policy3.
Circle froze $1.1 billion in USDC tied to the stolen funds within three days1. That move proves issuers can still pull money back, the opposite of what Ether offers.
The number spreading online this week measures noise more than real migration. Binance's depositors mostly stayed in place, and the money that reached decentralized exchanges arrived through the hackers who stole it first. Binance still serves 335 million users worldwide and moves $95 billion a day, Reuters reported3. Watch whether regulators conclude that decentralized exchanges need a way to freeze a hacker's funds after this one.
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Sources
- Jenny Lee, "Binance sees $3.64 billion in net outflows as withdrawals resume after massive hack," CNBC, Nov. 2, 2026, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/02/binance-outflow-hack-bitcoin.html
- Omkar Godbole, "$6 Billion Binance Hack Sends Bitcoin, Ether Tumbling; Standard Chartered Sees More Losses Ahead," CoinDesk, Oct. 30, 2026, https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/10/30/usd6-billion-binance-hack-sends-bitcoin-ether-tumbling-standard-chartered-sees-more-losses-ahead
- Reuters, "Binance users hold firm despite $6.3bn crypto hack," The Cyprus Mail, Nov. 2, 2026, https://cyprus-mail.com/2026/11/02/binance-users-hold-firm-despite-6-3bn-crypto-hack
- Rony Roy, "Binance hack could boost Uniswap as Standard Chartered sees DEX growth," Crypto.news, Oct. 30, 2026, https://crypto.news/binance-hack-could-boost-uniswap-as-standard-chartered-sees-dex-growth/
- Benjamin Njiri, "CEXs are losing market share to DEXs - Even when both are shrinking," AMBCrypto, Nov. 1, 2026, https://ambcrypto.com/cexs-are-losing-market-share-to-dexs-even-when-both-are-shrinking/
- Felix Ng, "Binance's Record $6.3B Crypto Hack as It Happened," Cointelegraph, Oct. 30, 2026, https://cointelegraph.com/news/live-updates-binance-63b-hack-linked-to-north-koreas-tradertraitor