Binance Customers Pull $4.7 Billion After $6.3B Hack as Bitcoin Hovers Near $78,000

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, confirmed that customers withdrew a net $4.7 billion following the largest theft in crypto history, a $6.3 billion breach attributed by the FBI and investigators to North Korea's TraderTraitor hacking group. The attack, which began with suspicious wallet transfers flagged on October 29, is believed to have originated from a compromised engineer's laptop, with security firm Blockaid warning that the EIP-7702 standard may have helped attackers bypass safeguards. Tether and Circle froze over $2.36 billion in assets, and Aave temporarily froze its markets after the attacker borrowed $44.6 million, bringing total frozen assets to $3 billion. The FBI and U.S. Secret Service joined recovery efforts, and U.S. politicians clashed over what the breach means for crypto regulation.

Binance paused withdrawals in the immediate aftermath and pledged to cover all customer losses, reserving $6.34 billion for that purpose, including $5 billion in matching tokens. The exchange reported replenishment reaching 90% by October 31 and 95% by November 1, before reopening withdrawals across 15 networks on Sunday. In the first 9.5 hours after reopening, Binance recorded $3.64 billion in net outflows, with the figure later revised to $4.7 billion. By November 2, the exchange reported withdrawal volumes stabilizing. THORChain separately froze swaps across 10 chains after a block reorganization bug, which had the secondary effect of stalling movement by the Binance hackers.

Bitcoin came under pressure throughout the episode, falling to as low as $77,674 on November 2 and trading around the $77,900-$78,000 range as markets digested the fallout. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643.3 million in net outflows on Friday, the largest single-day withdrawal since June 25, snapping four consecutive days of inflows. Crypto futures volume jumped 56%, and a small group of fast-moving traders was reported to have profited from the volatility even as broader sentiment remained in fear territory.