Binance hack tied to $6 billion loss sends Bitcoin below $77,000
Security & Exploits ·
A confirmed breach at Binance, described as the largest theft in the industry's history, wiped out over $6 billion and dragged the broader market into a sharp one-day selloff.
Binance acknowledged the incident, and figures circulating from other reports put the drained amount above $6 billion, according to CryptoPotato. Bitcoin bore the brunt of the reaction, falling to $76,350, a level not touched since September 18, before clawing back to roughly $78,000. The move came just a day after the token had tested resistance near $82,000 ahead of the latest Federal Reserve meeting, only to reverse toward $80,500 and then slide further into the October low.
The damage spread across major alternative coins. Ethereum slipped 3% and struggled to hold above $2,250, BNB lost more than 4% to trade near $715, and XRP eased to $1.250. Not every asset moved lower, though — privacy-focused tokens ZEC and XMR posted gains, and HYPE jumped over 17%, a move attributed partly to separate, positive regulatory news in the United States reported the day before.
Forced liquidations across the market totaled $1.52 billion over 24 hours, with $1.36 billion of that occurring after the hack became public, per CryptoPotato. Long positions absorbed most of the losses, led by Bitcoin at $482 million and Ethereum at $365 million. Nearly 240,000 traders were affected, and the single largest liquidation order, worth more than $11 million, was executed on Binance itself.
The episode drew added attention elsewhere in the cluster. One analysis from Standard Chartered floated the idea that a hack of this scale — put by that estimate near $6.3 billion — could push traders toward decentralized exchanges, with a related projection suggesting Uniswap could reach $100 by 2030. Separate coverage linked the breach to North Korean actors and noted that Pi Network's token moved against the broader trend, gaining roughly 3% during the crash.
What remains unclear is the precise final tally of stolen funds, since estimates across reports range from just above $6 billion to $6.3 billion, as well as the identity and motive behind the attack beyond the North Korea attribution circulating in related coverage. Whether the market's partial rebound toward $78,000 holds, and whether the hack meaningfully accelerates any shift of trading activity toward decentralized platforms, remains to be seen.