regulation ·
Morning Minute: Binance’s $6.4B Hack Overshadows Hyperliquid’s Biggest Day
The Binance hack, amounting to $6.4 billion, overshadowed a significant day for Hyperliquid, which was advancing towards a fully sanctioned perpetuals offering within the United States.
The theft from Binance represents, by a substantial margin, the largest cryptocurrency theft ever recorded, surpassing the $1.5 billion loss incurred by Bybit in February 2025 by a factor of four. The stolen assets were distributed across three different blockchain networks: approximately $3.5 billion in ETH, $1.4 billion in BTC, and $630 million residing on Tron, although the final accounting for these funds is still in progress.
Stablecoin issuers possessed a mechanism to halt their own tokens, a "kill switch" integrated into USDT and USDC, and Tether and Circle utilized this feature, effectively locking up around $2.39 billion between them, which constitutes 43% of the total amount taken. This leaves an estimated remainder of between $2.6 and $3.2 billion unaccounted for. Furthermore, Aave took precautionary measures by freezing its V3 and V4 markets on Ethereum, stemming from concerns that an attacker might use the stolen funds to take out loans against the protocol, subsequently leaving the protocol with bad debt.
While these events unfolded, Binance issued a statement indicating it was "aware of reports of a potential security issue" and assured that user holdings were "completely safe," simultaneously pausing withdrawals across several networks. CZ, the largest shareholder but no longer in charge of Binance, offered a comment stating, "it 'does look like a hack,'" and expressed his anticipation that user assets would be "fully covered." Later that same evening, Binance disclosed that it had allocated more than $6.34B from its corporate funds to cover the financial damages, confirming that funds are indeed "safu."
ZachXBT suggested that the funds from the Binance breach were mixed with assets from the $388M Bitget exploitation, leading him to hypothesize that the same hacking syndicate originating from North Korea was responsible for the attack. Regarding the mechanism of the breach, Binance indicated that the compromise of a DevOps engineer's workstation allowed the unauthorized transactions to be submitted, and they subsequently identified "additional points of breach" in the subsequent hours.
Market reactions mirrored expectations: Bitcoin dropped beneath $797,000, ETH fell below $2,200, and BNB dipped under $700. On that day alone, over $1.33B in positions were liquidated. This downturn occurred following a period that was developing into one of the most favorable days for a crypto venture in its history.
Earlier on Thursday, Trade.xyz announced that the Intercontinental Exchange, which operates the New York Stock Exchange, is making an investment in the company. The proposed arrangement involves a regulated US venue offering perpetual futures available 24 hours a day, built upon Hyperliquid, covering stocks, commodities, indices, currencies, and crypto, complete with its own clearing and exchange infrastructure, pending CFTC approval. Stanley Druckenmiller, one of a small contingent of external market figures, is also joining this venture. He had previously disclosed that his family office held a $23 million position in Hyperliquid Strategies earlier this year, and he claims that Hyperliquid has a clear route to becoming a fully regulated perpetuals offering inside the U.S., stating that ICE’s CEO remarked that Hyperliquid was “bigger than NASDAQ.” Stanley Druckenmiller shared his enthusiasm, writing on X, "I am excited to be an investor in trade(xyz) as they partner with ICE to bring 24/7 perpetual futures on Hyperliquid to the United States. As a market participant, I am looking forward to to using their innovative product to enhance my investment process. — Stan Druckenmiller (@standuquesne)"
On October 29, 2026, the HYPE token reached a peak of $97, representing an increase exceeding 20%, before declining to $89 in the wake of the Binance incident. As of the morning of this report, it stands at $93, marking an 8% gain for the day. Regrettably, the market now has to contend with the fallout from the Binance hack. Hyperliquid is positioned as a probable beneficiary as a primary decentralized exchange alternative to centralized exchanges like Binance, which are likely to suffer a decline in trust. Nevertheless, there is also a considerable possibility that widespread apprehension regarding further exploits could pull the entire market downward. It remains to be seen how the market will proceed, suggesting a volatile period ahead.
Earlier coverage
Reported by Decrypt.
