Binance Hack Drives Bitcoin Under $77K as Liquidations Top $1.5B

On Thursday, October 29, 2026, Bitcoin slipped below $77,000 after the first reports of an attack on Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. The impact, confirmed at $6.3 billion the next day, triggered $1.55 billion in liquidations and sent BNB down 7.1%. This analysis walks through the numbers, the reactions and the mechanics that weighed on the market.

A market under pressure from Thursday evening

According to The Block, Bitcoin had lost 4.5% over 24 hours and traded at $76,664 at 10 p.m. ET. The selling spread across the market: BNB fell 7.1% to $698.65, Ethereum dropped 5.2% to $2,190 and XRP lost 7% to $1.21. Earlier in the day, Bitcoin had reached a 24-hour high of $81,890 around noon before sliding after 4 p.m., as hack rumours multiplied.

Liquidations totalled $1.55 billion over 24 hours, including $1.34 billion in long positions, according to CoinGlass data cited by The Block. Some 246,482 traders were liquidated. The largest single liquidation was $11.09 million on the Binance-BTCUSDT pair. Bitcoin Magazine recorded a low of $78,177.37 and a price of $78,800, down 2.89% (about $2,350) over 24 hours, with volume near $26.14 billion and market capitalisation around $1.58 trillion. These prices are not directly comparable because they reflect different moments: $78,800 before the rumours spread on Thursday evening, $76,664 at 10 p.m. ET on Thursday, and $78,489.73 on Friday.

On-chain flows and conflicting totals

Early reports pointed to large outflows from wallets linked to Binance. Social media posts cited suspicious outflows of up to $5.8 billion, based on on-chain data showing about $3.55 billion in inflows to an unlabelled wallet. Conor Grogan, senior director at Coinbase, also put the figure at $5.8 billion.

Subsequent estimates diverged:

• $3.3 billion in suspicious outflows from Binance hot wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche, examined by Blockaid;
• $5.9 billion stolen according to Chainalysis, as cited by The Block;
• $6.3 billion in estimated impact, confirmed by Binance on Friday.

The sources do not reconcile these figures, because they do not measure the same category of flows. Blockchain researcher Spreek flagged activity that reportedly included a transfer through a contract call said to be funded by Tornado Cash. Aave reportedly froze its lending markets to prevent the suspected attacker from using the stolen funds. Binance.US said the incident did not affect its own platform. Bybit stated:

“Systems are operating normally, trading and withdrawals remain available, and user assets remain secure.”

Bybit, public statement

One estimate placed realised losses near 0.7% of Binance’s customer assets. At that stage, neither Binance nor authorities had published an official explanation, and the figures kept moving.

Stablecoin freezes and Binance’s response

Stablecoin issuers played a central role. Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT. Circle reportedly froze about $823 million in USDC, according to former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who remains a shareholder. Sources put total freezes between $1.8 billion and $2.4 billion.

“Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority”

Paolo Ardoino, CEO, Tether

On Friday, October 30, Binance confirmed the security incident with an estimated impact of $6.3 billion, which CNBC described as the largest crypto hack on record. About $3 billion in crypto assets were frozen at that point, and the exchange committed to cover all losses. In its first statement on X, co-CEO and co-founder Yi He urged users to remain vigilant against scams.

“We are aware of reports of a potential security issue and we are actively investigating. Users should remain cautious of scams and should not trust unofficial links, messages, or requests for account information.”

Yi He, co-CEO and co-founder, Binance

Binance’s initial investigation pointed to a specific vector:

“The security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.”

Binance, initial investigation

Deposits were not affected and continued to operate normally, Yi He said. The platform is improving its withdrawal service and associated address controls, with a gradual resumption of withdrawals expected within 48 hours. Binance later stated on X that the verified and frozen amount was about $3 billion. Changpeng Zhao said that, as a shareholder, he expected all user funds to be fully covered.

BNB and altcoins: a reaction seen as contained

Several analysts attributed BNB’s decline to its direct exposure to Binance. Dominick John, analyst at Zeus Research, said the exploit had intensified market-wide selling, with BNB the most exposed, and that recovery hinges on Binance restoring confidence in exchange security and customer funds. Jeff Ko, principal analyst at ViaBTC, did not expect the stolen bitcoin to add much selling pressure, since the broader market was already leaning bearish.

“The exchange’s $144 billion assets under custody, the fact that they paid a $4.3 billion penalty to the U.S. government in 2024 for AML breaches, as well as the swift responses from stablecoin providers such as Tether and Circle to freeze over $2.4 billion have all contributed to the lack of panic across the industry.”

Rick Maeda, head of markets, Laevitas

Maeda described the market reaction as “fairly contained” and the drop in BNB as “quite modest” given the scale of the incident. On Friday, the other major assets extended their losses:

Hyperliquid’s HYPE token was the exception, rising 17%. Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, said the firm was doing “everything we can to support in the current situation”, including blocking transfers to compromised wallets. The incident revived concerns about security at crypto companies, following the roughly $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025 and the theft of more than $350 million from Bitget.

Strategy as a source of price sensitivity

CoinDesk linked Bitcoin’s decline to the positions of Strategy, the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency. According to a filing dated October 26, the company holds 848,517 BTC bought at an average of $75,446 each. At a price near $80,000, the stack is worth about $68 billion, an unrealised gain of roughly $4 billion on $64 billion spent. A filing dated October 5 valued the bitcoin at about $83,500 at the end of September. Since then, the decline represents roughly $3 billion in unrealised losses, with two months left in the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Strategy booked a $4.12 billion deferred tax asset when its bitcoin was worth less than its purchase price, then reversed it, adding roughly $4 billion to profit. By CoinDesk’s calculations, that tax credit starts to unwind if Bitcoin falls below $75,446 and would be fully reversed near $58,500. Glassnode estimated that US spot bitcoin ETF investors paid about $81,500 on average, nearly 2% above the price CoinDesk cited. Strategy bought no bitcoin in the week ending October 25 and used the funds to repurchase its STRC preferred shares.

Outlook and scenarios

The market remains dependent on three variables: how quickly Binance restores withdrawals, the true extent of losses once figures are consolidated, and the ability of stablecoin issuers to freeze stolen funds. A constructive scenario would combine an effective resumption of withdrawals within 48 hours, full loss coverage and a stabilisation between $75,000 and $80,000.

Conversely, a break below $75,446 would activate Strategy’s tax credit unwinding mechanism and could accelerate forced selling of leveraged positions. A prolonged slide toward $58,500, the level at which the tax asset would be fully reversed, remains an extreme scenario, but cannot be ruled out if confidence in centralised platforms deteriorates for an extended period.

Sources

• The Block, Bitcoin slides below 77,000 after Binance hack (October 29, 2026)
• Google redirect link (secondary source)
• CNBC, Bitcoin and ether price, Binance security scare (October 30, 2026)
• Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin price slides after Binance
• CoinDesk, Live updates, Bitcoin clings to USD 80,000 (October 29, 2026)
• CryptoNews, on-chain analytics

Cet article est publié à titre informatif et éducatif. Il ne constitue en aucun cas un conseil en investissement. Faites vos propres recherches (DYOR) avant toute décision.