Bitcoin fell after attackers stole about $6.4 billion from Binance, but the cryptocurrency avoided the sudden collapse seen after an attack on the exchange in 2018. The contrast reflects the crypto market’s much larger size, the growing role of U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and a different market backdrop.
According to Decrypt, Bitcoin slipped to about $76,400 on Friday, roughly 6% below its level after Wednesday’s Federal Reserve decision. It was down about 4% a day after the hack, while more than $1.3 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated as exchanges automatically closed trades backed by borrowed money.
The theft, confirmed by Binance, is estimated at approximately $6.4 billion by blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis and TRM Labs. That would make it more than four times larger than the previous record crypto hack, the $1.5 billion theft from Bybit in February 2025.
Despite the scale of the incident, Bitcoin’s move was considerably less severe than in March 2018, when a failed attack targeting Binance caused the price to fall from $10,740 to $9,690 within minutes. The exchange said no funds had been stolen in that incident.
A larger and more liquid market
The crypto market has changed substantially since the 2018 episode. Its total value was slightly above $400 billion at the time; it is now worth roughly $2.6 trillion. That larger base means the same dollar amount of selling represents a smaller proportion of the overall market.
The earlier attack also came during a much weaker market phase. Bitcoin had reached nearly $20,000 in December 2017 and was already in a bear market when the Binance incident occurred. It continued falling after the attack, reaching about $6,600 by April 5.
The latest hack occurred while sentiment was already soft, but the market was not experiencing the same level of panic. CoinMarketCap’s Fear and Greed index fell to 36 from 43, moving into “fear” from “neutral.” In 2018, the index stood at 12, a level classified as “extreme fear.”
The 2018 attack involved phishing, compromised accounts and newly created API keys—credentials that allow trading software to operate an account. Attackers used the access to drive up the price of the obscure Viacoin token, while 31 accounts that had deposited Viacoin sold it.
The growing role of Bitcoin ETFs
One of the most important structural differences is the rise of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. These funds allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin through ordinary brokerage accounts rather than keeping coins on an exchange such as Binance.
The ETFs now hold roughly 1.3 million Bitcoin, equivalent to about 6% of the total supply. The holdings include funds such as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust. BlackRock’s fund recorded $136 million of inflows on Wednesday, according to Farside Investors data.
ETF shareholders do not hold their coins on Binance, reducing the direct link between an exchange-specific security failure and the broader Bitcoin market. The source material also points to purchases by sovereign wealth funds, including Mubadala and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, as part of the market’s broader institutional participation.
The timing of the theft matters when assessing ETF investor behavior. The attack began at 4:05 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, after U.S. markets had closed. Thursday’s preliminary $17 million of ETF inflows therefore occurred before the theft, making Friday’s flow figures the first meaningful indication of whether those investors were selling.
Binance’s response and the remaining risks
Binance said it had allocated more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover all losses. The exchange is purchasing missing tokens both on the open market and through over-the-counter transactions, which are private deals conducted away from the exchange’s public order book.
Binance also said about $3 billion had been frozen, deposits were operating normally and withdrawals were expected to resume within 45 hours. The attacker nevertheless retained more than 420,000 ETH and 18,270 BTC, valued at about $2.4 billion in the source material. Including other tokens, the holdings exceed $3 billion. Those assets cannot be frozen by stablecoin issuers.
TRM Labs and Chainalysis linked the attack to the North Korean group associated with the Bybit theft. After that earlier incident, the group converted about 84% of the stolen Ethereum into Bitcoin through Thorchain, a network used to swap assets across blockchains.
Other pressures were already weighing on the market. Glassnode data showed long-term holders were underwater on about 4 million Bitcoin purchased between $85,000 and $118,000. HashKey analyst Tim Sun said before the hack that the central issue was insufficient new buying interest rather than panic selling.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at 12:44 p.m. on November 1, 2026, showed Bitcoin at $77,793.07, up 0.4% over 24 hours but down 3.13% over seven days. BNB was $711.51, up 0.88% over 24 hours and down 3.73% over seven days.
NEAR Protocol stood at $4.37, down 1.24% over 24 hours and 1.77% over seven days. Billions Network was priced at $0.0140, down 0.59% over 24 hours and up 10.04% over seven days, according to Moneyiar data recorded at 1:39 a.m. on September 21, 2026.
Bitcoin remains about 38% below its record of $126,080. The relatively limited reaction to the Binance theft does not remove the losses or operational risks involved, but it shows how market scale, ETF ownership, institutional participation and the existing mood can affect the way investors respond to a major exchange attack.
