Bitcoin holds steady after record $6.3B Binance hack

Bitcoin ↘ 0.62% stayed close to where it was trading after the largest crypto theft on record. On Monday, Nov. 2, it was little changed and about 5% below its high from Thursday, Oct. 29, the day Binance disclosed a hack that drained about $6.3 billion in assets, Bloomberg reported. Traders have largely credited Binance's fast response for that resilience. The exchange promised from the start to cover all losses. Ether Ethereum ↘ 0.48% did worse. It fell about 4% after the breach and closed October down 16% as investors pulled a record amount of money from Ether exchange-traded funds.news.bloomberglaw.com+1

A fast response

Binance said partners helped freeze about $3 billion of the stolen assets. It also said it had set aside $6.34 billion of its own funds to cover the losses. On Saturday, Oct. 31, the FBI said the attack was the work of TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored unit. The agency said the group was converting the stolen funds mainly into Ether. The same day, Binance said it had already replaced 90% of the missing assets. Not every sign was calm, though. Customers have taken out a net $4.72 billion since withdrawals restarted on Sunday, Nov. 1, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimates the hackers still hold about $3.28 billion, mostly in Bitcoin and Ether.pbs.org+3

Tom Lee calls it constructive

Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine Immersion Technologies, called the theft "a terrible development." He added that "the relatively muted crypto market reaction is very constructive, particularly compared to the market's response to prior sizable crypto thefts". He compared it with the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025, when Ether fell 8% on the day and 20% within a week. This time Ether slipped about 4%, even though the theft was roughly four times as large. Lee pointed to Binance's ability to cover losses, the absence of a chain of failures in decentralized finance and quick industry action that cut the potential loss in half. Bitmine kept buying and now holds about 6.06 million ETH, or 4.9% of the token's supply.finance.yahoo.com+1

October's record outflows

Ether's slide started before the hack. The 16% drop in October ended a three-month winning streak, and US spot Ether ETFs lost $1.61 billion in net outflows that month, the most since they launched in July 2024, according to SoSoValue data. Bitcoin ETFs lost $515 million over the same period. The hack briefly pushed Ether below $2,200 and set off more than $400 million in liquidations of futures positions. Lee still read the reaction as a good sign, saying the episode shows the industry is "increasingly resilient and more capable of absorbing these nation-state assaults".tmgm.com+1