My $0.17 Got Trapped by a $6.3B Binance Hack

HJLa...3M2h
6 Nov 2026
5

Last week, the biggest crypto exchange in the world got hacked. Binance lost about $6.3 billion from its hot wallet — billions, in a single attack. I use Binance myself, so this wasn't just news to me. My money was sitting there while withdrawals were frozen.
Binance said user funds are safe and they will cover the losses, and withdrawals started reopening in phases from November 1, with Solana on the first list. But for days, I couldn't move anything.
And here's my own small story inside the big one: all I needed was about $1–2 worth of SOL for gas fees. I had 0.00187705 SOL — roughly $0.17 — sitting in Binance Earn, then I moved it to Spot. Still not enough to withdraw, because the minimum is around 0.01 SOL. So my tiny gas money was trapped by a hack I had nothing to do with.
That is the lesson that stuck with me: "not your keys, not your coins" is not just a slogan. Exchanges can be hacked, withdrawals can freeze, and even $0.17 can get stuck. From now on, I keep what I need in my own wallet, and I leave only what I am actively using on an exchange.
Has an exchange ever frozen your funds? What did you do?

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