Quick Take
- Binance is investigating a potential security issue after large transfers left labeled wallets.
- Tether froze about $1.57B and Circle froze $823M tied to the suspected incident.
- Bitcoin fell to $78,297 as nearly $1B in crypto liquidations hit over 24 hours.
Bitcoin hit an intraday low of $78,297 on Binance spot on Oct. 29 and sat near $79,126 at press time, as large transfers left Binance-labeled wallets.
Binance shared on X that the exchange is “aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating.”
It added:
“Our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information.”
Former CEO Changpeng Zhao went further on X, arguing that “it does look like a hack on Binance.”
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that the firm froze roughly $1.57 billion related to the potential hack, while Circle froze about $823 million.
What the chain shows
Whale Alert recorded 28,005 ETH, about $64.9 million, leaving a Binance-labeled wallet at 20:24:47 UTC, and 780 million USDC leaving another at 20:41:23 UTC. Both went to the same new address.
At 20:38:47 UTC, the receiving address forwarded 195,460 ETH, about $449 million, to a second address.
On-chain watchers circulated a total close to $2.8 billion across five chains, and the full figure remains unreconciled.
Analyst Spreek first flagged the activity, noting that the contract call behind it was funded by an address linked to Tornado Cash.
DefiLlama co-founder 0xngmi argued that Binance has $144 billion in assets under custody and that the amount effectively stolen would represent less than 1% of that value, so the exchange could “cover it from balance sheet easily.”
The Bitcoin selloff began earlier
Bitcoin was already weak before the first highlighted transfer, having traded below $80,000 earlier on Oct. 29 as a technology-stock selloff and a hawkish reading of the Fed's Oct. 28 hold weighed on risk assets.
Binance spot data shows Bitcoin sliding from about $80,849 to $80,438 between 20:00 and 20:15 UTC. The 20:30 to 20:45 candle closed at $78,884.52, down about 1.9%, and the low came in the next quarter hour.
CoinGlass reported nearly $1 billion in liquidations in the past 24 hours, and roughly $532 million in liquidations in the past hour. Bitcoin liquidations totaled $289 million, and Ethereum's totaled $236 million.
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