Bitcoin Hovers Around $78,000 After Binance Breach — Update
By Joseph WilkinsBitcoin was trading around $78,000 on Monday after the largest security breach in crypto history sent coin prices tumbling last week and kept investor sentiment muted.The bellwether cryptocurrency was 0.2% higher at $77,982 on Monday after falling as low as $76,377 on Friday, marking a modest recovery. It remains firmly below the $80,000 threshold, however, after cyber thieves linked to a North Korean hacking group raided crypto exchange Binance and stole around $6.3 billion in assets.The breach raises fresh concerns about whether investors can count on crypto exchanges to keep their assets safe.Binance on Sunday began allowing customers to resume withdrawals from its exchange after blocking customers last week from withdrawing funds while its team conducted security checks. The exchange said it has now replaced roughly 95% of the stolen assets. The outstanding 5% "are less liquid in the market and take a longer time to source at the required scale," the company said."Although the exchange has maintained that customer balances remain protected and initiated the reopening of withdrawals, the incident has renewed concerns about centralized exchange security, liquidity management, and institutional counterparty exposure," Naeem Aslam, analyst at digital asset researcher Zaye Capital Markets, wrote in a note.Bitcoin edged higher in tandem with U.S. stock futures on Monday, which are looking to recover from a losing week that saw the tech-heavy Nasdaq suffer its worst losses since March 2025. Intel shares had their worst day on record, closing almost 30% lower after the memory-chip crunch and other hiccups weighed on PC sales.Crypto traders are looking ahead to a busy week that includes the U.S. midterm elections, October U.S. jobs data and central bank rate decisions across Europe.Ether clawed back some losses on Monday, trading 1.2% higher at $2,290.80.Write to Joseph Wilkins at [email protected]