Bitcoin Falls to Six-Week Low of $77,646 After Binance Breach
Key Facts
Bitcoin touched a six-week low of $77,646 on Friday, October 30, after Binance announced a potential security issue on its trading platform, Reuters reported. The decline came on a day when U.S. technology stocks also fell, but the two markets had separate catalysts. Reuters linked the drop in cryptocurrencies to breach concerns at Binance, while the Associated Press attributed pressure on technology stocks to concerns that the AI wave had pushed valuations to elevated levels. EL7 data showed Bitcoin’s daily closing price at $77,368.77 on October 30, then $77,368 on October 31. This puts the low recorded during Friday in its correct time context, separate from the later closing date.
Binance said its hot wallets were breached at about 20:05 UTC on October 29, resulting in the loss of an estimated $6.3 billion in tokenized assets. The exchange said it had frozen about $3 billion in on-chain assets and temporarily suspended withdrawals, while deposits and other unaffected services continued. Reuters reported that the exchange said more than $2.5 billion in assets had been frozen, while the exchange later said the frozen amount had reached about $3 billion. Binance said its initial investigation found no evidence that wallet private keys had been leaked. Reuters also quoted co-CEO Richard Teng describing the breach as a "sophisticated attack" involving a compromised laptop and malware designed to erase evidence.
Binance said it had allocated more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses, including $5 billion in the affected assets themselves, covering about 80% of the affected amount. It said the financial impact of the stolen funds would be borne by its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) and company treasury, saying: "Binance will bear the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users." In a parallel move, Tether said it had frozen about $1.57 billion in assets linked to the incident, while Circle froze more than $800 million. Binance is working with the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, Reuters reported. The Secret Service said investigators were working with private-sector partners to identify, freeze, track and recover the stolen funds.
The pressure spread to other digital assets: Ether fell to a two-month low of $2,238.76, and the BNB token dropped more than 8% in 24 hours to $694, according to CoinGecko data cited by Reuters. Shares of crypto-linked companies, including Coinbase, Strategy and Robinhood, also fell, Reuters reported. TRM estimated that the TraderTraitor group, affiliated with a North Korean hacking unit, likely carried out the attack, the Associated Press reported; the estimate came from a blockchain intelligence firm. In Friday trading, Coinbase shares fell 10.6% and Strategy shares declined 7.8%, according to the Associated Press. These moves show the incident’s broader impact on digital-asset stocks as cryptocurrencies themselves fell.
In the broader stock market, the Nasdaq Composite lost 2.9% on Friday to close at 25,437.00, while the S&P 500 fell 1.8% to 7,580.07, according to the Associated Press. The news agency said the technology selloff intensified amid concerns that enthusiasm for AI had pushed prices to elevated levels. Intel shares fell about 29%, their worst day since 1974, after the company’s earnings forecast came in below analysts’ expectations. Nvidia shares also fell 4.2%, making it the single biggest drag on the S&P 500, the news agency reported. Portfolio manager Joe Tigay said AI trading had moved from a phase of hopes and expectations to one of proving results. In bond markets, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell to 4.93% from 4.98% late Thursday and from more than 5.30% earlier in the month.
Attention is turning to Binance’s ability to restore withdrawals and demonstrate the safety of its assets after the incident. The exchange said it was targeting the start of a phased resumption of withdrawals in about 34 hours from its Friday update, following security checks. It also aims to conduct an initial proof-of-reserves snapshot within 12 hours and publish the results by Monday, November 2, 2026. Binance expects to share additional technical findings in about 48 hours, after verification. These announced steps will show whether the exchange can restore services and strengthen customer confidence after the breach.