Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, said the exchange will fully compensate users after Binance was hacked early on Oct. 30, adding that the losses may be slightly higher than outside estimates. The comment came in a post on X and later drew a response from Elon Musk, who replied to a user comment with a grimacing emoji and no text.
CZ says losses may be higher than $1 billion estimate
The exchange hack triggered a thread that began with an estimate from DefiLlama founder 0xngmi. He said Binance held about $144 billion in custody assets and estimated losses at roughly $1 billion after accounting for stablecoins frozen by Tether and Circle. That would equal about 0.69% of assets under custody, and he said Binance could absorb the hit through its balance sheet.
CZ quoted that post and wrote that losses may be "a bit higher than that, but will be covered." The post had drawn about 1.73 million views at the time cited in the source material. In an earlier post, CZ also said he no longer manages Binance and was speaking as a shareholder when he said he expected users to be made whole.
Binance later published its own estimate, putting the impact of the incident at about $6.3 billion. The company said around $3 billion had already been frozen on-chain. The remaining losses are to be covered by the SAFU fund and Binance’s own capital. Based on those figures, about $3.3 billion had not been frozen, more than triple 0xngmi’s estimate at the time.
User brings up SBF’s old FTX post, Musk replies with emoji
After CZ’s comments, a user posted a screenshot of an old tweet from former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF. The tweet was published four days before FTX entered bankruptcy in 2022 and said FTX had enough funds to cover all customer assets.
At 12:33 p.m. Taiwan time on Oct. 30, Musk replied under that comment with a grimacing emoji. He did not add any words. The reply had about 55,000 views.
Musk did not explain what exactly the emoji referred to. Public reactions varied, but the available information does not show whether he was reacting to CZ’s pledge to compensate users, the comparison to FTX, or the broader hack incident.
Musk has prior ties to both Binance and FTX
Musk has had public dealings with both exchanges. In 2022, when he acquired Twitter for $44 billion, Binance invested $500 million as one of the co-investors.
Later that year, after FTX collapsed in November, Musk said SBF had previously approached him about participating in the Twitter deal and that the conversation had triggered his "bullshit detector."
Binance says breach involved multiple factors
In an update issued later on Oct. 30, Binance said the incident was caused by multiple factors. Its security team is tracing the full attack path of a compromised computer that may have served as the entry point.
The exchange said withdrawals are expected to resume within 48 hours, while deposits remain open.
Key figures cited in the incident
- 0xngmi estimated losses at about $1 billion, or 0.69% of Binance’s $144 billion in custody assets.
- Binance said the incident affected about $6.3 billion, with roughly $3 billion frozen on-chain and about $3.3 billion not yet frozen.
What is known about the emoji and compensation plan
The source material says the emoji used by Musk is named Grimacing Face in Unicode. Emojipedia describes it as an expression that can signal tension, awkwardness, or discomfort. Musk did not provide any further explanation.
On compensation, Binance said losses from the incident will be covered by the SAFU fund and company capital, and user losses will be reimbursed. Withdrawals are expected to return within 48 hours.
