Finance1 min read

Bitcoin hits 6-week low, drops below $78,000 as Binance’s $6 billion hack rattles crypto markets. What should investors do?

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The massive breach occurred after an attacker gained access to a Binance service container through a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, facilitating illicit transactions across ten blockchains in roughly 20 minutes. Although U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recently experienced inflows, the incident rapidly triggered $1.28 billion in long liquidations as Ether and BNB plummeted alongside Bitcoin. Binance has since halted transactions, pledged full reimbursement for losses, and assisted in freezing about $3 billion. Analysts recommend that investors hold off on both panic selling and aggressive buying until market volatility subsides.

Key points

  • Binance temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while committing to fully cover al…: Binance temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while committing to fully cover all user losses resulting from the hack.
  • Joint efforts between Binance, intelligence firms, and law enforcement have already resul…: Joint efforts between Binance, intelligence firms, and law enforcement have already resulted in the freezing of approximately $3 billion in assets.
  • Analysts recommend that investors wait for market stability rather than aggressively buyi…: Analysts recommend that investors wait for market stability rather than aggressively buying or panic selling near the immediate $76,600 support level.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

The world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, dropped to $77,646 on Friday. Ether, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency, meanwhile dropped to a two-month low of $2,239. BNB, a token originally launched as Binance Coin to be used to pay Binance fees, crashed more than 8% over the past 24 hours at $694, Reuters cited data from CoinGecko.

DevOps engineer’s laptop, North Korean firm & $6 bn wiped off: How Binance’s hack happened

Binance announced in a post on X that its initial probe found the alleged security breach may have arisen from a hacked laptop of a DevOps engineer, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Around $3 billion in cryptocurrency assets was frozen and Binance pledged to cover all losses. It also temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals, revoked the affected address authorization and enlisted law enforcement and blockchain intelligence firms to trace and recover funds.US blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs, meanwhile, said North Korean hackers may be behind a $6.3 billion security hack on Binance. "An attacker moved approximately $6.36 billion out…

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