Binance seeks return of frozen ETH and ARB through DAO vote

Binance filed the request through its Binance_Post_Listing forum account. The assets remain at an intermediary frozen address on Arbitrum One. The proposal must pass forum discussion, a Snapshot temperature check and a binding onchain vote; Binance is seeking release of the frozen funds, not a new allocation from the DAO treasury.

The exchange said it would cover affected users’ losses through its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company treasury. Any recovered assets could go toward incident-related losses and costs, including replenishing reserves already used to compensate customers.

Arbitrum’s Security Council said it froze the assets at 8:08 a.m. Hong Kong time on Oct. 30, the evening of Oct. 29 in the United States. It temporarily upgraded Ethereum’s Inbox contract to move the funds from an address associated with the exploit, then restored the contract’s original implementation. The council said no other users’ funds or applications were affected and that only an Arbitrum DAO vote could authorize movement of the frozen assets.

Binance proposes a similar technical sequence for the return: temporarily upgrade the Inbox contract, transfer the balances to its designated recovery address, then remove the temporary function. The exchange said the request would not directly draw on the DAO budget beyond normal governance execution costs.

Approval timeline and legal conditions

Binance’s estimated schedule allows one week for forum discussion, one week for the temperature check and two weeks for the onchain vote, followed by about 18 days before execution. The process could take longer. Arbitrum’s constitution requires at least 1 million delegated ARB to submit an onchain proposal. After a three-day waiting period, voting normally lasts 14 days and may be extended if quorum is reached late. Approval requires more votes in favor than against and participation equal to half of delegated votable tokens, subject to a minimum of 150 million ARB and a maximum of 450 million. Additional waiting periods on Arbitrum and Ethereum, including the rollup challenge period, apply before execution.

The draft bars submission and delivery while an effective restraining notice, writ, court order or other legal process blocks the transfer, unless a competent court permits it. Binance would hold returned assets separately while such a process remains unresolved and defend competing claims at its own expense. Before submitting the proposal onchain, it must sign indemnification agreements covering the Arbitrum Foundation, Offchain Labs and Security Council members. The agreements would be governed by New York law, with disputes assigned to state and federal courts in New York County.

In a separate Nov. 5 update, Binance said selected withdrawals across Ethereum, BSC, Base, Tron, Polygon and Sui would begin reopening from 04:00 UTC. Availability is to return progressively after security checks; deposits remain open. The exchange said it was prioritizing tokens based on demand over the previous week and warned of possible temporary delays.

Binance also said it removed all API keys linked to SignalPlus after the platform reported a potential security issue. The exchange said its systems were unaffected and user funds remained safe. It advised SignalPlus users to review positions and open orders through Binance, wait for confirmation that the issue is resolved before reconnecting keys, and enable IP whitelisting.