Strategy Shares Fall 7.8% as Binance Is Hacked, With Losses Estimated at $6.3 Billion
Key Facts
Strategy shares fell 7.8% on Friday, October 30, alongside declines in cryptocurrency stocks after Binance announced that its hot wallets had been hacked, with losses estimated at about $6.3 billion in tokenized assets. The company’s shares, which trade under the ticker MSTR, closed at $130.51 on October 30, compared with $139.82 at the close on October 26. In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin fell below $77,000 after trading above $86,000 earlier in the month. Strategy said its chief financial officer would leave his post the following week for personal reasons. The announcement coincided with quarterly results showing higher earnings than analysts had expected, according to the Associated Press.
Binance said the hack occurred at about 20:05 UTC on October 29 and affected its hot wallets. The company estimated the value of the stolen tokenized assets at about $6.3 billion, then announced that it would cover the funds from its user protection fund and treasury. In an update, it said it had allocated more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the losses, including $5 billion in the affected tokenized assets themselves. It added that it had frozen about $3 billion on-chain as of the update. These measures show the scale of the funding the platform said it had earmarked to address the incident, while the resumption of withdrawals remained contingent on the completion of security checks.
Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals during security checks and said deposits and services unaffected by the incident continued to operate. In its update, it said its technical team aimed to begin resuming withdrawals gradually within about 34 hours, subject to completion of the checks. It also plans to publish the result of a preliminary proof-of-reserves snapshot by Monday, November 2, 2026. The company said its initial investigation found no evidence that the wallets’ private keys had been leaked. It added that it expects to publish further technical findings after they have been verified, keeping the investigation among the developments in the days following the incident.
The pressure spread to major cryptocurrencies on Thursday: Bitcoin fell 3.2% that evening to below $79,000, according to the Associated Press. Reuters said Bitcoin fell more than 4% on Thursday, while Ether dropped more than 5%, before both assets recouped some losses on Friday. Reuters also reported that Tether froze nearly $1.57 billion linked to the incident, while Circle said it had frozen more than $800 million. This coincided with a decline in Strategy shares, whose performance is tied to the company’s large Bitcoin exposure; the company said it held 848,517 Bitcoin on October 25, up 26% since the beginning of 2026.
Strategy’s quarterly results provide a parallel financial context for the share movement and the change in financial leadership. The company reported revenue of $125.4 million in the third quarter of 2026, compared with $128.7 million in the same period of 2025, a year-on-year decline of 3%. At the same time, it posted net income of $19.53 billion and diluted earnings per share of $44.75, compared with $2.79 billion and $8.42, respectively, a year earlier. The company attributed a major portion of the results to a $20.91 billion gain on its digital assets, compared with a gain of $3.89 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Thus, higher net income coincided with lower revenue, while its Bitcoin holdings remained a key factor in the company’s results.
On the management front, Andrew Kang will step down as executive vice president and chief financial officer effective November 5, 2026, but will remain an adviser to the company until December 31. Strategy said CEO Phong Le will serve as principal financial officer during the transition. Reza Vahasteh, the current executive vice president of operations, is set to become executive vice president and chief financial officer on January 1, 2027, sharing the title of principal financial officer with Le. This timetable sets out a management transition extending from Kang’s departure in November to Vahasteh taking the role early next year. At Binance, the next announced milestone is the gradual resumption of withdrawals and publication of the proof-of-reserves snapshot result by November 2, alongside continuing security checks and the technical investigation.