Bitcoin dipped to about $76,400 on Friday, roughly 6 percent below its level after the Federal Reserve’s decision, after a theft of roughly $6.4 billion from the Binance exchange. Binance confirmed the theft. The attack began at 4:05 p.m. ET on Thursday, after U.S. markets had closed. By our market data, bitcoin was at $77,414 as of 01:02 GMT on 31 October, up 0.41 percent from the previous close and near its 31-day low.
Scale of the theft
Chainalysis and TRM Labs estimate the theft at about $6.4 billion, which would make it the largest crypto hack on record. The previous largest was the $1.5 billion Bybit heist of February 2025. Leveraged bets worth about $1.3 billion were liquidated.
Binance says deposits operate normally. It has set aside $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses and says about $3 billion of the stolen funds have been frozen. Withdrawals are expected to resume in about 45 hours.
Market reaction and the attacker
Tim Sun, an analyst at HashKey, said the market’s problem is not panic selling but insufficient new buying interest. Glassnode data shows about 4 million long-term holder coins underwater, bought between $85,000 and $118,000.
Chainalysis and TRM Labs trace the funds to a North Korean group. The attacker holds more than 420,000 ETH and 18,270 BTC, worth about $2.4 billion. The Bybit-linked group converted 84 percent of stolen Ethereum into Bitcoin.
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Comparison with 2018
In March 2018, a failed attack on Binance used phishing, account takeovers and API keys to pump Viacoin. Binance said no funds were stolen. Bitcoin fell 11 percent in minutes during that incident, then to about $6,600 by April 5, 2018, from a December 2017 peak of about $20,000.
Related: Binance halts deposits and withdrawals after alleged hack · Binance probes possible hack; Tether and Circle freeze funds
Source: Binance | Data: CoinGecko
