Changpeng Zhao says Binance's SPCX shares, tied to its $500 million bet on Musk's Twitter deal, could help absorb an estimated $6.3 billion breach
Binance may tap its stake in SpaceX, which Changpeng Zhao values at more than $1 billion, to help cover losses from a major security breach. The Binance founder says the exchange will make users whole and will not push the costs onto them.
The pledge follows a breach on October 29–30, 2026, which is expected to cost the exchange approximately $6.3 billion.
The hack, the freeze and the promise
Binance moved quickly after the breach was detected. The exchange froze around $3 billion in assets in the immediate aftermath.
It is also working with law enforcement and stablecoin issuers to try to claw back more of the stolen funds. Stablecoin issuers can sometimes freeze tokens at the contract level, which makes them useful allies when stolen money is sitting in dollar-pegged assets.
On October 30, 2026, CZ said Binance would cover all user losses tied to the incident. He has repeated that customers will not be asked to absorb any of the damage.
For context, Binance reportedly held around $144 billion in total assets under custody before the breach. The estimated loss is painful but represents a fraction of that pool.
Where the SpaceX shares come from
The SpaceX connection runs through an older bet on Elon Musk. Binance put $500 million into Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, part of the broader $44 billion deal that took the platform private.
Twitter has since been rebranded as X. According to CZ, the shares Binance now holds from that investment, referred to as SPCX shares, are worth more than $1 billion.
There is a caveat worth flagging. Binance’s direct ownership of SpaceX shares has not been independently verified, and its exposure is linked strictly to its investment in X.
CZ also suggested the shares could contribute meaningfully to covering losses without forcing an immediate sell-off.
Musk weighed in on X as well. He responded to CZ with a grimacing emoji and the caption “Every day is Zeroday,” a nod to zero-day exploits, the security flaws attackers use before defenders know they exist.
A year of SpaceX headaches for Binance
This is not Binance’s first brush with SpaceX-related complications in 2026. Earlier in the year, the exchange canceled tokenized SpaceX IPO campaigns because it could not secure enough shares to meet allocations.
Binance refunded investors approximately $557 million after pulling those campaigns. It also distributed a $1 million airdrop of SPCXB tokens, a gesture to soften the disappointment.
That earlier episode showed how hard it is to source SpaceX equity at scale. Now the same name sits at the center of Binance’s plan to backstop a far larger problem.
What this means for users, rivals and regulators
For Binance customers, the headline promise is reassuring: losses get covered, and users do not foot the bill. The open question is timing, and how much of the estimated $6.3 billion is recovered through freezes and law enforcement before corporate assets come into play.
The $3 billion already frozen narrows the gap considerably. Add a stake CZ values at over $1 billion, and the exchange has several levers before it needs to touch customer balances.
Still, valuations of private holdings are not cash. Until those shares are sold or otherwise monetized, the over $1 billion figure is CZ’s estimate rather than money in the bank.
