According to CoinMeta, as reported by Eleanor Terrett, Binance further clarified its statement regarding the security of its customers' funds, stating that the assets were stolen from hot wallets under its control, and that Binance is the legal owner of these assets. Generally speaking, when users deposit cryptocurrencies on an exchange, the exchange becomes the owner of the assets and grants users the right to claim those assets. Retail customers' assets are typically accounted for in a consolidated account, and customers have a proportional right to claim all such assets. A spokesperson confirmed to Crypto in America that these assets technically belong to Binance and represent the customers' claims to ownership of the cryptocurrencies on the exchange. Binance stated that stolen assets will be replaced to ensure that customers' account balances and values remain unchanged. If Binance does not have sufficient funds to compensate for the stolen assets, some customers' recoveries may be reduced, or they may suffer a "decentralized issuance" (also known as "deflation"). The exchange mentioned that it has reserved over $6.34 billion in company funds to cover this incident.