$1.57 Billion in Crypto Positions Liquidated as Bitcoin Falls After Binance Hack

Key Facts

Sixty-eight of the top 90 cryptocurrencies fell and 22 rose, excluding stablecoins, in a snapshot as of 8 a.m. Eastern time on October 30, according to TokenPost. Bitway posted the biggest loss among the assets covered, falling 26.23% to $1.33 over 24 hours. The moves came as news of the Binance hack weighed on the market, while trading data showed a broad wave of forced liquidations of leveraged positions. Binance said the incident’s estimated impact was about $6.3 billion and that it worked with partners to freeze about $3 billion in on-chain assets. Losses in individual assets thus coincided with mounting security and liquidity concerns in the market.

The decline extended to larger cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin falling 3.45% to $77,322 and Ether dropping 3.81% to $2,234 over the same period, according to TokenPost. Pearl, which had the second-biggest loss on the list, fell 11.27%. In separate coverage following news of the hack, CoinDesk said Bitcoin fell 4.8% to below $77,000 and Ether lost 5.7%, while BNB fell 8% and AAVE 11%. The Associated Press also said Bitcoin neared $77,000 after topping $86,000 earlier in the month, alongside a decline in shares of cryptocurrency companies. These snapshots show price moves at different times and over different observation periods, with major assets continuing to face pressure amid the wave of news.

The decline was accompanied by sharp liquidations in the futures market. Forced liquidations totaled $1.53 billion over 24 hours through Friday morning in Asia, with long positions accounting for 83.8% of the total, according to CoinDesk, citing CoinGlass. In another report, CoinDesk said futures liquidations quadrupled to $1.57 billion, alongside a 74% rise in trading volume to $346.1 billion and a 3% drop in open interest to $136.3 billion. The report said liquidations surged after the Binance hack pushed prices lower. In the options market, five of the six most-traded Bitcoin contracts were puts, all below the current price, according to CoinDesk. These indicators reflect rising demand for hedges against further declines as open positions recede.

During Asian trading, Bitcoin fell to about $76,460 before recovering toward $78,500, according to CoinDesk. Ether traded near $2,240 after falling below $2,200. The Associated Press cited TRM Labs as saying with high confidence that the North Korea-linked TraderTraitor group was responsible for the hack. Binance said its initial investigation indicated that a DevOps engineer’s laptop may have been compromised, but that it found no evidence of private wallet keys being leaked. The AP put losses from the Bybit hack in February 2025 at about $1.5 billion, comparing it with the scale of the current security incident. Binance said it would cover the hack’s losses from its SAFU fund and company funds, and confirmed that user funds were safe.

Binance temporarily halted withdrawals for security checks, while deposits continued to operate normally, according to its official update. The Associated Press said Friday morning that withdrawals remained suspended, the company expected to resume them within a day or two, and it had begun recovering assets for users. In a statement cited by CoinDesk on October 30, the co-CEO said the investigation had uncovered additional points of compromise and that Binance hoped to resume withdrawals by Sunday, in about 40 hours. He added that the company was reviewing its cloud systems, employee devices, private-key management and transaction-signing procedures. Binance pledged to publish a proof-of-reserves update after remediation was complete. The next step for users depends on completing the security checks and restoring withdrawal service.