Strive CEO Says Bitcoin’s Long-Term Investment Case Intact Despite $6.3 Billion Binance Hack
A $6.3 billion hack at global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has not damaged Bitcoin’s long-term investment case, according to analysts.Cointelegraph reported on October 31 that Matt Cole, chief executive officer of Strive, said in an interview that the breach does not change the long-term thesis for Bitcoin. He compared the attack on a Binance wallet to a bank robbery, rather than a flaw in the Bitcoin network itself.Bitcoin was trading at about $77,400 as of 4 p.m. on October 31. That was about 4% lower than on October 29, just before the hack. Cole said the decline was more limited than expected given the scale of the losses and broader market weakness.Still, he added that it was too early to determine whether Bitcoin had found a bottom. He said the market is in the early stages of a recovery and that prices could recover gradually over the next six to nine months rather than surge sharply.Paul Chapman, a director at Wirex and a financial-crime specialist, also stressed that exchange hacks should be distinguished from security issues involving the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin itself was not hacked. The attack targeted an individual company’s systems, not the network, he said.According to on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, losses from the Binance hack total about $6.3 billion, more than the combined losses from the second- through 10th-largest cryptocurrency hacks on record. In the Bybit hack in February last year, Bitcoin fell about 5%, dropping from roughly $100,000 to $95,000.Meanwhile, blockchain security firm Blockaid said the attack may have exploited Binance’s transaction-signing procedures. Binance said it had found no evidence that private wallet keys were compromised and was investigating the exact path of the breach.