128.63 Million ENA Tokens Transferred to Binance, Valued at Nearly $24 Million

Key Facts

Lookonchain spotted Ethena transferring about 128.63 million ENA tokens, valued at nearly $24 million, to Binance in the eight hours before its October 31 post. The token transaction tracker said Ethena had "deposited 128.63 million ENA into Binance" during that period. The reason for the transfer was unconfirmed, and neither Binance nor Ethena confirmed that it represented a purchase or recovery of assets. The transfer comes as Binance works to replace assets it said were lost in a hack of its hot wallets. But the platform’s announcement of a recovery plan does not establish that this specific transaction was part of it.

A Lookonchain report gave similar details, saying the transfer involved 128.6 million ENA valued at nearly $24.33 million, citing an estimate from EmberCN. The report attributed speculation to EmberCN that Binance may have bought the tokens, but said the nature of the transaction was unconfirmed. Lookonchain valued the transfer at about $24 million in its post, the figure the report used to describe the move. The difference between the estimates does not change the fact that what was spotted was a transfer of tokens to Binance, not an announcement that a purchase had been completed or that the tokens had left circulation. The transfer alone therefore does not establish a change in ENA’s circulating supply or an effect on selling pressure or market sentiment.

Binance said its hot wallets were hacked at about 20:05 UTC on October 29, causing an estimated $6.3 billion in token losses. In an update on October 30, it said it had allocated more than $6.34 billion to cover the losses, including $5 billion in the affected tokens themselves. It added that it had covered about 80% of the affected value and was buying the remaining assets through the market and over-the-counter trades. The update provides the broader context for the recovery effort, but does not link the specific ENA transfer to those purchases. The platform also said its preliminary investigation found no evidence that wallet private keys had been leaked, and that it was working with internal and external experts to establish the sequence and causes of the attack.

In a later update dated October 31, Binance said the share of affected assets replenished had risen to 90%, from about 80% in its previous update. It said ten listed tokens were now fully backed by reserves: BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC. About 10% of the assets had yet to be replaced, it said, including tokens outside the list of ten. The new figure reflects progress the company said it had made in replenishing assets, while purchases of the remainder were still under way, according to its update. Binance did not specify in the announcement whether ENA was among the assets whose backing was complete or those still being replaced.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation linked the attack to a group known as TraderTraitor and said its malicious cyber activity was linked to North Korea. The bureau asked cryptocurrency platforms and blockchain analytics firms to block transactions associated with specified addresses. The Associated Press reported that Binance said about $3 billion in assets linked to the incident had been frozen on-chain, and that deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended during security checks. After news of the incident, Bitcoin fell 3.2% to below $79,000 on the evening of Thursday, October 29, the agency reported. These developments place the ENA transfer amid broad security measures and recovery efforts following the hack, without providing evidence that the transfer itself affected trading in the token.

Binance said it expected withdrawals to resume on November 1, 2026, and proof of reserves to be completed on November 3, 2026, UTC. The resumption and proof-of-reserves dates follow the announcement of a temporary suspension of deposits and withdrawals, as the platform said about 10% of affected assets still needed to be replenished. The company set a date for completing proof of reserves, while the available information gave no deadline for buying all remaining tokens. The recovery effort therefore remains tied to Binance’s updates on reserves and withdrawals, as well as clarification of the purpose of the transfer spotted by Lookonchain. Until then, the transfer remains an observed movement to a trading platform, not confirmation of an ENA purchase or recovery.