The state of CEXs: Binance reserves surge by $4.5B as Bybit sees massive outflows

Crypto research and analytic platform CryptoRank has revealed that Binance tops centralized exchanges in monthly net reserves, with a surge of $4.5 billion in net inflows. The firm also noted that Bybit recorded massive outflows, an additional $3.5 billion over the past month.

Bybit experienced huge negative monthly reserves following a hack in February. KuCoin and OKX exchanges also recorded a drop in net outflows of $464 million and $517 million, respectively. Bitfinex and HTX Global reported an increase in monthly inflows, with roughly $639 million and $585 million, respectively.

Binance reserves net inflows surge by $4.5 billion

Binance reserves surge by $4.5B as Bybit sees massive outflows@Binance recorded net inflows of $4.5B over the past month, while @Bybit_Official saw $3.45B in outflows following a hack situation.

Meanwhile, @Bitfinex and @HTX_Global reported positive inflows, in contrast to… pic.twitter.com/FZHIl4zVNm

— CryptoRank.io (@CryptoRank_io) March 5, 2025

Binance recorded the most monthly net reserves, with a surge of $4.5 billion in inflows last month. According to CryptoRank’s data, the exchange had about $145.13 billion in reserves, at the time of publication.

Data from DeFiLlama also indicated that Binance saw up to $5.323 billion in net inflows for the month of February. The remaining nine exchanges experienced a combined total of $1.229 billion in February net inflows, excluding Bybit, which experienced massive outflows.

Per DeFiLlama, Binance saw $1.5 billion in net inflows in just 24 hours after Bybit’s hack on February 21, a total of $3.97 billion net inflow from February 21 to 27.

In January, the largest exchange only attracted around $3.5 billion in net inflows, which, although at the time, surpassed any full month’s inflow since November 2022. Binance reported that it has continued to record massive inflows after a challenging period marked by legal hurdles and leadership shifts. 

Binance paid the U.S. government a landmark $4.3 billion settlement late last year. The settlement was part of a guilty plea agreement that saw the firm admit to money laundering and sanctions evasion. The CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao, also agreed to step down and enter his own plea as part of the deal.

Bybit hack causes massive monthly net outflows on the exchange

Bybit experienced massive outflows after the worst crypto hack in history by North Korean hackers, who siphoned roughly $1.4 billion worth of Ether from the exchange on February 21. The record outflows stemmed from withdrawal pressure from Bybit’s customers after the hack drained 70% of the exchange’s assets.

DeFiLlama recorded that the exchange experienced an outflow of over $6.1 billion in two days after the hack. The firm also noted that the rapid outflows caused the exchange’s total assets to drop from $16.9 billion to $10.8 billion as of February 24. CryptoRank has indicated that Bybit has a total of $3.63 billion in reserves as of the time of publication.

Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, said that the firm had managed to process all withdrawals 12 hrs after the worst hack in history. He described the incident during an X Spaces session and said the hack forced the company to secure a loan to process mounting withdrawal requests. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain estimated that the exchange received 446,870 Ether, worth around $1.23 billion (88%) of the stolen amount, from loans, whale deposits, and purchases.

Zhou assured the firm’s customers that Bybit was back to 100% 1:1 on client assets through the Merkle tree. He also acknowledged that the company was going to publish its new audited proof-of-reserves report very soon.

“All withdrawals have been processed. Our withdraw system is now fully back to normal pace, you can withdraw any amount and experience no delays.”

–Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit.

THORChain has also reported unprecedented inflows following the Bybit hack. The decentralized protocol revealed that it processed an impressive $4.66 billion in swaps for the week ending March 2, which marked the highest volume recorded to date. The firm also exceeded the $1 billion mark in transactions on a single day, Sunday.

Blockchain analytics firm Nansen acknowledged that the surge in THORChain’s activity was linked to the February 22 hack of Bybit. The firm believes that the hackers utilized THORChain to swap and launder the stolen funds, leading to record-breaking activity on the platform.

Lookonchain has revealed that the Bybit hacker has successfully laundered the entirety of the stolen ETH. The blockchain analytic platform noted that the primary channel used for the operation was THORChain. The firm said the hackers have laundered 270,000 ETH, which equates to about $605 million. According to the analytic firm, the remaining 299,395 ETH ($514 million) remains in the hacker’s possession.

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