Lost Tokens and Recovered Trust: The Hidden Battlefield of Binance Asset Tracking
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Lost Tokens and Recovered Trust: The Hidden Battlefield of Binance Asset Tracking
Binance is not just about trading, but also about protection.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: TechFlow
In the world of cryptocurrency, every transfer can become an adventure.
"I experienced something that kept me awake all night... The transaction was confirmed on-chain, but the assets never arrived. At that moment, I truly thought the money was gone forever." Yuan still feels shaken recalling the incident over a month ago. Fortunately, in his darkest hour, Binance's customer service team became his "lifeline."
In another city, GoKu accidentally learned during a casual conversation that 5WBUSD he had lost years earlier due to a mistake could actually be recovered. "I previously asked some security experts, and they said it was highly unlikely to get it back. But later I found out my case qualified for Binance’s dedicated 'Anti-Black Hole Program' to recover lost funds," said an excited GoKu.
These fragments form real stories we are about to unfold: some users desperately seeking help in panic, others rushing to fix mistakes after misoperations, some even unaware of risks until warned. When detecting asset anomalies late at night, when feeling helpless after erroneous transfers—what users need most is not just technical support, but a trustworthy guardian.
Next, let’s explore through several real user experiences how Binance becomes the strongest support for users in times of crisis.
1. Unexpected Recovery
Celine still shudders when recalling that night in 2020.
"It was right when DeFi started booming," Celine said. "I staked BTC from my wallet into WBTC, then transferred the WBTC to Binance. But because of a cross-network error, I entered the wrong address. When I checked my Binance account, nothing showed up."
"In that instant, I froze completely." Even five years later, Celine still feels the fear.
Initially, she held onto a sliver of hope. "I thought maybe it just needed time, so for half an hour after sending, I waited anxiously, checking my account every one or two minutes. But after thirty minutes, still nothing. That’s when I finally accepted it—I had lost my coins."
She had sent 5 WBTC—worth around $600,000 today—a significant amount. After confirming the loss, she frantically asked many friends in the industry, but most replied, "It’s unrecoverable." Until one friend suggested: "Maybe you can try contacting someone at Binance."
"At first, I didn’t have high hopes," Celine said. "Losing crypto is common—wrong addresses, hacks, incorrect chains—most people just accept the loss. And this was clearly my own fault." Two months later, by chance, she met an ordinary Binance employee.
After adding WeChat, Celine detailed her experience losing the coins. Once identity verification was complete, he immediately began helping solve the issue—no unnecessary small talk.
Surprisingly, within less than a week, Binance successfully recovered the lost coins and returned them along the original path.
"I was incredibly surprised. I expected either a long wait or being told it was impossible to recover," Celine said excitedly.
When she learned the lost coins were finally retrieved, Celine expressed not only joy and relief, but deep gratitude toward Binance and this particular employee. "We were strangers. This wasn’t part of his job, yet he reached out immediately upon learning of my trouble. He located my lost coins among countless transactions and didn’t ask for credit or material reward afterward. My appreciation is absolutely 100% genuine."
During the interview, Celine emphasized repeatedly how lucky she was that her mistaken transfer went to Binance. Had it been sent to a wallet address or another exchange, recovery would have been impossible. Throughout the recovery process, she felt Binance’s team took things seriously, acted promptly, and helped customers resolve issues without delay.
"I’m just an ordinary user, yet they treated my request with such care and attention. For Binance to handle diverse issues across its massive user base with limited staff is truly remarkable," Celine said.
2. A New Life in Despair
Zihao remembers January 25, 2021 very clearly—it was a mistake on this day that brought endless anxiety and distress.
It was still the tail end of DeFi Summer, with assets frequently moving between wallets for DeFi farming. While organizing assets in his Ontology wallet, Zihao intended to send psUSD (sUSD on Ontology) to another wallet. But when copying the address, he mistakenly copied Binance’s ONT deposit address instead (both addresses were in his history), and thus 250,000 USDT was sent straight into Binance.
"My relaxed mood instantly turned沉重," Zihao said. "I immediately opened a ticket with Binance support." However, due to technical limitations at the time, unsupported assets couldn't be automatically credited. He was anxious, relying solely on feedback from Binance’s customer service. Then came a long period of back-and-forth; multiple follow-ups yielded only "NO" as answers. "By the end of February, I was really worried, so I reached out to Yijie (a well-known Binance staff member). She kindly helped check with the tech team, but it was still put on hold due to technical difficulties," Zihao said.
Since then, Zihao submitted a ticket roughly every six months, hoping technological upgrades might eventually offer a solution.
"Until April this year, I tried again with low expectations—and this time, there was actual progress! Binance’s technology had evolved enough to solve my problem! After submitting the ticket, everything moved forward quickly. It took about 60 days, but the assets were finally recovered. I was so happy that day! I immediately messaged Yijie to express my deepest thanks, and she replied, 'Really? That’s amazing!'"
Excitedly, Zihao added, "It felt like finding a son lost for four years—when I’d almost given up hope, suddenly he reappeared!"
3. The Warmth of the "BNB Anti-Black Hole Program"
Hunter, a veteran in the crypto space, runs a quantitative trading studio. Five years ago, due to a bug in his code, he accidentally sent funds to an empty address during a transfer, losing 60,000 USDT worth of BNB.
"At first, I felt deep regret and self-blame. Later, I kept telling myself it was just lost profit—better to lose money than suffer greater disaster," Hunter said.
Luckily, more than two months later, Hunter met Binance co-founder He Yi at an event in Dubai. From her, he learned about Binance’s "BNB Anti-Black Hole Program," designed to help users recover lost assets. "In that moment, hope reignited," Hunter said happily.
The "BNB Anti-Black Hole Program" was launched in 2020. At the time, a BNB holder accidentally transferred 867 BNB (then valued at approximately $20,000) to an unused smart contract address, resulting in permanent loss—an issue that had occurred multiple times in the crypto space.
Against this backdrop, Binance introduced the "Anti-Black Hole Program." While the crypto world upholds "code is law," Binance believes laws may be cold, but humans should show compassion. To passively observe violates our core value of "putting users first." Binance aims not only to respect the spirit of "law," but also to make finance fairer and freer.
The logic behind the "BNB Anti-Black Hole Program" is this: although direct recovery of incorrectly sent BNB and pegged tokens via smart contracts is impossible (the loss is already irreversible), BNB has a "burn mechanism," allowing compensation from the quarterly BNB burn allocation.
Under the program, Binance adjusted its BNB burn mechanism. Starting from Q3 2020: Actual quarterly BNB burn amount = originally scheduled burn amount – BNB amount compensated to users under the "BNB Anti-Black Hole Program."
After verifying Hunter’s identity, address, and eligibility under the program’s conditions, Binance initiated the asset recovery process.
"The entire process was extremely smooth—all issues resolved in under a month," Hunter said. "What impressed me most was that the Binance team was not only professional but also compassionate. During that month, they didn’t leave me waiting in silence—they proactively updated me on progress and often reassured me not to worry, saying the issue would soon be resolved."
"I’ve used other exchanges’ services, but in comparison, I truly believe Binance puts user interests first, actively helps resolve problems, and delivers unmatched service quality and experience," Hunter added.
4. The Precious 1.3 Bitcoins
Monk got into Bitcoin as early as 2016, investing real money—he bought 10 BTC for 200,000 RMB, a substantial investment at the time.
But in the following years, he failed to manage his assets properly, scattering them across various wallets and exchanges large and small. Not until 2020, when a friend mentioned Bitcoin had risen to $30,000 per coin, did he consider consolidating his scattered holdings.
The search was tough and difficult. Over time, he no longer remembered which apps held his coins. Worse, many wallets and exchanges had shut down or ceased operations, meaning any coins stored there were likely gone forever.
After a frustrating search, Monk finally discovered that only 1.3 BTC remained—transferred to Binance. Before this, he had already mentally prepared himself for total loss.
"Thankfully, those coins ended up at Binance. If they were on any other exchange, they’d definitely be unrecoverable," Monk said.
Once he confirmed the coins were on Binance, Monk immediately contacted their customer service. Upon understanding the situation, Binance support promptly escalated his case to the technical team. After about ten days, Binance successfully helped Monk recover the precious 1.3 BTC.
"I was just trying my luck—after so much time had passed, I didn’t expect anything. But surprisingly, the Binance team immediately started working on my case and resolved it quickly. They didn’t dismiss it as too small or a waste of effort," Monk said gratefully.
During the interview, Monk repeatedly expressed deep gratitude toward Binance’s team, openly sharing his heartfelt reflections: "Although I’ve known Binance co-founder He Yi for a long time, I didn’t share her vision about Bitcoin’s value back then. If I had understood its importance earlier, I would have safeguarded those 10 BTC properly, instead of recovering only 1.3 now. These remaining 1.3 BTC? I won’t sell them. I want to keep them as a memento—and a reminder."
5. Responsibility in the Xirtam Incident
"After 845 days, I received my secondary compensation from the Xirtam incident—22.97 ETH," tweeted Leo (pseudonym), a KOL known as "San Francisco Is Not Paris," sharing the latest update on the Xirtam case.
Similarly, the final batch of over ten secondary investors also received payouts. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Binance’s Xirtam incident response team, the primary and secondary compensation work, spanning two years, has finally achieved phased success.
Leo couldn’t hide his joy and gratitude. Over the past year, life had been hard: a 15 million RMB loss, mortgage on his house, and still 1.36 million RMB in debt. He once believed he was simply unlucky, missing every opportunity to turn things around. But on the day he received the payout, he felt incredibly fortunate.
Recalling the events, Leo’s memory remains vivid.
Over two years ago, there was a popular education-sector project on BSC called Xirtam. It raised funds through a primary ICO, then listed on DEXs like Sushi, quickly attracting widespread attention.
Xirtam’s token launched on DEX around midnight on May 2, 2023. Influenced by market sentiment, Leo immediately bought into the token on the secondary market.
But prices began falling immediately. As the price dropped, rumors spread in Telegram groups that the project team had run away. Yet Leo believed it was merely a washout by whales, so he kept buying more ETH to average down, accumulating about 30 ETH in total.
After exhausting all his capital, Leo went to sleep with hopeful expectations.
But the next day, the story didn’t reverse. The team had indeed fled—the token price crashed to zero.
"At that moment, I was stunned. Silent. Helpless. I fell into deep despair, convinced it was completely over," Leo said.
But fate left a door open—miracles happened.
The miracle didn’t come from a rebound in token price, but because the Xirtam team transferred all ETH raised from both primary and secondary sales directly to Binance. Some affected users then reached out to Binance.
Upon learning the full story, Binance immediately froze all ETH belonging to the Xirtam project team. They formed a dedicated investigation team to review the entire incident and established a special Xirtam compensation team to begin reimbursing affected users.
"Technically, this was beyond Binance’s responsibility—they could have ignored it. Or claimed to help while requiring judicial rulings before processing any compensation," Leo said. "But without delay or additional requirements, despite pressure including threats of lawsuits from the project team, Binance decisively chose to freeze the ETH and proceed with individual compensation."
In the end, Leo transferred the 22.97 ETH compensation into his Binance account and decided not to withdraw or sell. In his post, he wrote: "Thank you to fate, thank you to Binance, for giving me a second chance. Though life keeps testing me, though destiny crushes me again and again, fate always offers a glimmer of hope when I’m at my lowest. That hope came through Binance. I will cherish it—my last chance to rebuild."
6. From Response to Protection: Building the Foundation of User Trust
1. Special Task Force
Within Binance’s vast customer service system exists a little-known yet critically important special team. Comprised of over a dozen professionals, this elite group carries out a seemingly simple yet profoundly meaningful mission: resolving complex cases where users’ digital asset deposits fail to credit. Their responsibilities span from deep technical analysis to meticulous user information verification—true "asset guardians" of the blockchain world.
Their achievements are impressive. According to Binance’s official blog, between 2022 and 2023, their relentless efforts helped users recover and restore over $4.35 billion worth of digital tokens. In 2023 alone, the team handled more than 170,000 uncredited deposit cases, including over 40,000 "wrong coin" incidents. One of the most common scenarios involves users depositing coins not yet supported by Binance.
This seemingly straightforward recovery work actually requires extremely complex cross-departmental coordination. The team must closely collaborate with wallet technology, fund settlement, and security risk control departments, forming an efficient joint operation mechanism. As business grows, Binance’s technical support capabilities continue to improve—now directly supporting asset recovery across 41 blockchain networks listed on Binance, plus another 41 non-listed EVM networks under specific conditions.
Team members admit the actual recovery process is far more complex and challenging than outsiders imagine. Each case demands significant technical development resources, specialized manpower, and considerable time. More importantly, not all operational errors can be corrected—technical constraints sometimes make recovery impossible. When setting handling fee standards, Binance strives to strike a delicate balance: protecting user interests to prevent high fees from deterring users, while using reasonable cost structures to educate and warn users, preventing complacency that might lead to treating wrong transfers as risk-free trivialities.
Notably, the team applies policy with humanity rather than rigid automation. They adapt flexibly based on individual circumstances. For example, if a user is sensitive to fees or the transfer amount is small and urgency low, the team may kindly suggest waiting, monitoring whether Binance will eventually support the relevant blockchain network. Such advice helps users save on immediate recovery costs while offering alternative future solutions.
Despite facing extreme technical challenges and requiring immense effort, team members remain passionate and proud of their work. Every successful recovery brings deep satisfaction and a sense of professional fulfillment. As one member put it: "To us, each asset—regardless of size—may carry profound significance for the user. It could be a family’s living expenses, a startup’s seed funding, or an investor’s lifelong savings."
The most beautiful emotion in the world is the relief after a false alarm. Through this special team’s professional and meticulous work, users who believed their assets were permanently lost regain unexpected hope and joy. Their existence reflects Binance’s deep commitment to user asset security and demonstrates continuous progress and humanization in customer service.
2. Full Commitment to User Asset Protection
At Binance, all employees uphold a culture of "user-first"—this principle forms the foundation of everything Binance does. Under this philosophy, Binance not only helps users recover misplaced or lost digital assets but also freezes and recovers illicit funds flowing into the Binance platform.
According to official data, as of August 31, 2025, Binance’s security team has successfully recovered or frozen over $38 million in user funds stolen by external entities. In 2024 alone, approximately $88 million in stolen or lost funds were recovered.
Although Binance strives to promote ecosystem integrity by protecting user security and recovering funds, this practice has drawn criticism. Critics argue it contradicts fundamental blockchain principles and ethos. While Binance centers on customers, aiding recovery and mitigating security flaws, doing so arguably violates the underlying code rules.
Binance counters that code doesn’t represent everything. When code fails and users suffer losses, as an industry leader, action must be taken to ensure code safety.
Therefore, despite ongoing criticism, Binance continues to adhere to its "user-first" principle—not only assisting individuals in recovering lost assets but also becoming one of the earliest institutions to actively cooperate with global law enforcement agencies to combat cryptocurrency-related crimes.
Additionally, Binance initiated the establishment of the Crypto Security Alliance (CSA) and built the CryptoSafe Platform. This platform features a decentralized incident reporting and response system, plus a deep defense mechanism capable of security detection within a decentralized data-sharing environment, improving fraud detection while preserving data privacy and confidentiality.
As Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) once said: "Ensuring fund security is a shared consensus across the entire crypto community and participants." For years, Binance has upheld this consensus, fulfilling its role as an industry leader, collaborating widely to protect user asset security.
7. Security: The Starting Point of Service
From urgent asset recovery to patient companionship in service details, Binance consistently upholds three core service values: security as the foundation, timely response, and thoughtful support. Whether deploying critical technical capabilities or expressing warm user care, the platform strives to be a reliable "crypto gatekeeper" for users in every crucial moment.
As user Oyster put it: "Some say Binance’s success is just good luck... But with 20 years of internet product experience, I can say Binance’s product experience is genuinely excellent... The CEO understands product, technology, and truly cares about users."
Trust is no longer just a slogan—it’s presence during emergencies, immediate tracking activation after mistaken transfers, dedicated support always online when users are anxious, and silent prevention of potential threats by the risk control system.
Binance co-founder He Yi once told employees: "Even if the smallest issue arises, every employee should go all out to comfort the user."
Here, Binance is more than just a trading platform—it’s a guardian.
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