Crypto exchanges spent the first week of November publishing a number most of them used to keep vague: the share of customer coins held in cold storage, meaning wallets kept offline and away from the internet. The trigger was the October 29 attack on Binance’s hot wallets, where thieves took about $6.36 billion, most of it within roughly 20 minutes, according to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs.
The market noticed. On a live Bitcoin to USD chart, the attack shows up as a slide below $78,000 in the hours after the theft, followed by a rebound to $80,564 on November 5 and a broader sell-off to $75,620 on November 6.
Those prices also explain why a cold storage percentage only tells half the story. A ratio tells you what share of an exchange’s coins sits online. The bitcoin price tells you what that share is worth in dollars on any given day. Below, we put the two together, using the disclosures published since the attack and our own math.
How Did the Bitcoin Price Move After the October 29 Hack?
Bitcoin dropped about 4% within hours of the attack, then recovered most of that loss within a week. The sharper fall on November 6 came from a broad risk-off move in markets rather than new exchange problems.
| Date (UTC) | BTC to USD | What was happening |
| October 29, about 23:50 | Below $78,000 (about −4.1% in 24 hours) | Hours after the hot-wallet theft |
| November 1, 10:18 | About $78,064 | Withdrawals restart in phases |
| November 5 | $80,564 (+5.4% on the day) | Rebound as markets steady |
| November 6, 04:00 | $75,620 (about −6% in 24 hours) | Broad sell-off led by tech stocks |
Prices from CoinGecko data as reported by market outlets on each date. Bitcoin’s price changes by the second, so check a live chart for the current rate.
The November 6 drop is worth separating from the hack. Market commentators tied that day’s move to a sell-off in AI and tech shares and talk of tougher US oversight, and about $1.25 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in 24 hours. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell to 28 (“Fear”) that day, down from 50 a day earlier.
What Is a Cold-Storage Ratio, and Why Are Exchanges Publishing It Now?
A cold-storage ratio is the percentage of customer crypto an exchange keeps in offline wallets. The rest sits in hot wallets, which stay connected so withdrawals can go out quickly. Hot wallets are convenient, but they’re also what attackers target.
The October attack hit exactly that layer. Binance CEO Richard Teng said the “vast majority” of user assets were held in cold wallets, and in a November 3 post on X he wrote that “no user bears the loss.” Even so, a theft measured in billions pushed rivals and regulators to put numbers on the table.
South Korea already had a rule. Exchanges there must keep at least 80% of customer digital assets in cold storage, and the country’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) collects the figures.
Which Exchanges Have Disclosed Their Cold-Storage Ratios?
At least three large global exchanges and five Korean won-based exchanges have published figures. They range from just above the Korean minimum to more than 99%.
| Exchange (as described in disclosures) | Cold storage share | Date of figure |
| Large US-listed exchange | More than 99% of customer assets | Blog post, November 4 |
| South Korea’s largest exchange | 99.17% | End of September (FSS) |
| Second-largest Korean exchange | 94.76% | End of September (FSS) |
| Global exchange (security page) | More than 95% of client crypto | Updated September 18 |
| Global exchange launching a “Proof of Security” report | 88.26% of total assets | November 5 |
| Three smaller Korean exchanges | 85%, 82.79% and 80.54% | End of September (FSS) |
Figures as reported by each exchange or by South Korea’s FSS. We’ve described exchanges by type rather than name.
One disclosure went further than a single percentage. On November 5, the exchange reporting 88.26%, Gate launched a framework it calls Proof of Security (PoSEC). A standard proof-of-reserves report shows that an exchange holds enough coins to match customer balances. PoSEC adds a stress test: it shows how those assets are split between hot and cold wallets, and whether cold storage alone could repay customers if every hot wallet were drained.
Gate’s answer was 104.58%, meaning its cold reserves would still cover all customer assets in that worst case. In its words, “PoSEC provides visibility into asset storage structures and their ability to cover potential losses under extreme scenarios.” By our math, the two figures together imply total platform assets of roughly 118% of customer balances, since 104.58 ÷ 88.26 ≈ 1.18. The data was still being reviewed by a third-party audit firm when it was published, so treat it as self-reported for now.
What Does Bitcoin Cold Storage Mean in Dollar Terms?
The dollar exposure depends on two things: the hot-wallet share and the Bitcoin price on the day you check. To make the ratios concrete, we modeled a hypothetical exchange holding 50,000 BTC for its customers, valued at $75,620 per coin (November 6, 04:00 UTC). At that price, the whole pile is worth about $3.78 billion.
| Hot-wallet share | BTC online | Dollar value on November 6 |
| 0.83% (99.17% cold) | 415 BTC | About $31.4 million |
| 1% (99% cold) | 500 BTC | About $37.8 million |
| 5% (95% cold) | 2,500 BTC | About $189 million |
| 11.74% (88.26% cold) | 5,870 BTC | About $444 million |
| 20% (Korea’s 80% minimum) | 10,000 BTC | About $756 million |
Our calculation: BTC online × $75,620.19.
The price matters as much as the percentage. Take the 18,270 BTC that blockchain trackers say the attacker still controls. At $80,564 on November 5, those coins were worth about $1.47 billion. At $75,620 the next morning, they were worth about $1.38 billion, a swing of roughly $90 million without a single coin moving.
Does a Higher Cold-Storage Ratio Protect the Bitcoin Price?
Not directly. Bitcoin’s price is set by trading across the whole market, and the week after the attack showed that macro moves can matter more than a single exchange incident. The quick recovery to $80,564 by November 5 suggests the market treated the theft as a company problem, not a flaw in Bitcoin itself.
A higher ratio does limit how much an exchange can lose in one attack, and that supports confidence over time. The response to this hack also helped. Blockchain analysts at Elliptic estimated that about $2.85 billion of the stolen funds were frozen or seized, roughly 94% of it in stablecoins whose issuers can block addresses.
Cold storage still isn’t bulletproof. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission warned exchanges in August 2025 that weaknesses in wallet systems can affect both hot and cold setups. A high ratio is a strong sign, not a guarantee.
How Can You Check an Exchange’s Cold Storage Alongside the Bitcoin Price?
Here’s the five-step routine we used to build the table above. It only takes a few minutes.
- Write down the price and the time. Note the current Bitcoin price in US dollars, with the date and time, because the dollar math changes with every move.
- Find the exchange’s latest proof-of-reserves report. That’s a report showing the exchange holds at least as many coins as customers have deposited. Check its snapshot date.
- Look for a hot/cold split. Some exchanges publish an exact percentage; others say “more than 95%.” Note whether it covers customer assets or total platform assets.
- Multiply. Total BTC held × hot-wallet share × current price gives you the approximate dollar amount online.
- Compare with the exchange’s protection fund. If an exchange keeps a user protection fund, check whether it’s larger than the dollar amount you just calculated.
If you hold Bitcoin for the long term and rarely trade, the same logic applies at home. Coins in a wallet you control offline aren’t exposed to an exchange’s hot wallet at all.
FAQs
Why don’t exchanges keep 100% of crypto in cold storage?
Exchanges need some coins online to process withdrawals quickly. Moving funds out of cold storage usually takes manual approvals and several people, which can take hours. Most large exchanges aim for a small hot-wallet buffer that covers normal daily withdrawals, then refill it from cold storage as needed.
What is a proof-of-reserves report?
It’s a report in which an exchange shows that the coins it holds on-chain match or exceed what customers have deposited. Many now use cryptographic methods so users can check their own balance is included without revealing anyone else’s. The snapshot date matters, because balances change daily.
Is cold storage the same as a hardware wallet?
They’re closely related. A hardware wallet is one type of cold storage that individuals use to keep their keys offline. Exchanges usually run larger setups with several devices, multiple approvals and secure facilities, but the idea is the same: keys that never touch the internet are much harder to steal.
What is a multisig wallet?
A multisig, or multi-signature, wallet needs approval from several separate keys before coins can move, such as three out of five. Exchanges often use multisig setups for cold storage, so a single stolen laptop or password isn’t enough to drain funds. The trade-off is speed, since every withdrawal from that wallet needs several people to sign off.
Why does the Bitcoin price differ slightly between websites?
Each price page pulls from different trading venues and updates at different moments, so quotes can differ by a few dollars at any given second. Some show the last traded price, while others show an average across markets. For calculations like the ones in this article, note the time of the quote and use the same source each time.
