CZ: Pregnant He Yi stayed up all night with hundreds of Binance employees to respond to the security incident
On October 30, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) posted on X that user funds are SAFU. He specifically pointed out that He Yi, who is heavily pregnant, stayed up all night and responded to the security incident together with hundreds of Binance employees.
CZ said that many friends in the industry and even competitors, including some with whom relations had previously not been very good, provided much-needed help. He said, This hurts, but we will get through it.
The post cited an earlier post by He Yi. In it, He Yi thanked the community for its collective support, said the team was conducting security scans to ensure platform fund safety, and reiterated that user funds are SAFU. Binance officially said the same day that an initial investigation showed the incident may have involved a compromised DevOps engineer’s computer, estimated the impact at about $6.3 billion, said about $3 billion had been frozen, and said the company would use the SAFU fund and company funds to cover all losses in full, that user funds were safe, and that deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended.
Original source:
Title: User funds are SAFU! Yet, this pregnant lady 👇 pulled an all nighter... Publisher: CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) Publication date: 2026-10-30 URL: https://x.com/cz_binance/status/2115993068507897936 Source type: post by the party involved Verification status: the full text was actually read in this instance, verified on 2026-10-30 Supporting content: CZ’s statement that user funds are SAFU, that He Yi stayed up all night to respond together with hundreds of Binance employees, that industry friends and competitors provided help, and the remark that this hurts but we will get through it
Title: Thank you for the collective support from the community... User funds SAFU. Publisher: Yi He (@heyibinance) Publication date: 2026-10-30 URL: https://x.com/heyibinance/status/2115977844224565522 Source type: post by the party involved Verification status: the full text was actually read in this instance, verified on 2026-10-30 Supporting content: He Yi’s thanks for community support, the statement that security scans were underway, and that user funds are SAFU (as cited by CZ)
Title: Binance's initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop... Publisher: Binance (@binance) Publication date: 2026-10-30 URL: https://x.com/binance/status/2115993361517891592 Source type: official announcement Verification status: the full text was actually read in this instance, verified on 2026-10-30 Supporting content: the official statements that the initial investigation pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer’s computer, that the estimated impact was about $6.3 billion, that about $3 billion had been frozen, that the SAFU fund and company funds would cover all losses, that user funds were safe, and that deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended
ABAB AI Insight
He Yi and CZ co-founded Binance in 2017 and have long been responsible for product, user, brand, and customer service directions. In December 2025, she was appointed co-CEO, jointly leading the company with Richard Teng, while retaining her Chief Customer Service Officer duties. CZ is no longer responsible for day-to-day operations, but he still speaks publicly as a shareholder. In this incident, CZ specifically named He Yi, who is heavily pregnant, as staying up all night to respond, and placed her alongside “hundreds of Binancians,” showing the core founding team’s continued involvement in the crisis.
Binance officially confirmed that it would use the SAFU fund and company funds to cover all losses. SAFU is a user security asset fund established in 2018 and has previously been used multiple times to cover losses from security incidents; in early 2026, the company converted about $1 billion of its stablecoin reserves into Bitcoin. The official estimate of the total impact was about $6.3 billion, with about $3 billion already frozen, meaning the remaining portion would need to be covered by company funds. Rapid freezing actions by industry players, including stablecoin issuers, were cited by CZ as much-needed help, reducing the actual net loss exposure.
Compared with Bybit’s roughly $1.5 billion incident in February 2025, this incident was larger in scale, but Binance chose to clearly state “full coverage” early on and suspend deposits and withdrawals. The difference is that CZ, speaking as a non-day-to-day manager, publicly named individual efforts by the current leadership and emphasized competitors’ assistance, whereas the Bybit incident was driven more by official technical announcements. This kind of public statement directly links personal performance of duties with corporate credibility.
This public support strengthens He Yi’s visible role in the security incident as part of the current leadership, and also ties the commitment that “user funds are safe” to the personal reputation of the founders and the company’s fund pool. The indicator to watch is whether the subsequent official full technical review and updated Proof of Reserves will show that the actual sources of covered funds and the net loss figures are consistent with the current estimate of about $6.3 billion and the statement that “SAFU + company funds cover all losses.”
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
The founder publicly names current leadership staying up all night to respond, turning personal performance of duties into part of corporate credibility.
Competitors help freeze assets, turning a single-exchange incident into cross-institution loss control.
After promising full coverage, the remaining exposure shifts from the safety fund to the company’s cash pool.