Bitcoin drops 4.84% in 24 hours; Ethereum also slides more than 5%

Binance accused of $5.8 billion outflow from hot wallet breach

Exchange suspends deposits and withdrawals amid ongoing probe

CZ says user funds are safe, compensation coverage 'will be sufficient'

[Reuters]
[Reuters]

Bitcoin fell below the $80,000 mark and slid into the $78,000 range Friday as allegations of a massive hack at Binance, the world's largest digital asset exchange, deepened anxiety across crypto markets.

According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin was trading at $77,241 as of 9:20 a.m. Friday, down 4.84% from 24 hours earlier. Ethereum fell 5.67% to $2,290 over the same period. XRP and Solana dropped 7.14% and 7.49%, respectively, while Binance Coin (BNB) slid 9% to $690.

As selling pressure spread across the broader digital asset market, total market capitalization fell 4.28% from 24 hours earlier to $2.6 trillion. Liquidations in the futures market reached $1.15 billion over the same period. CoinMarketCap's Fear and Greed Index, a gauge of investor sentiment, stood at 37, firmly in "Fear" territory.

Allegations emerged overnight that up to $5.8 billion worth of digital assets had been drained from Binance's hot wallets in a hack. Conor Grogan, a senior director at Coinbase, estimated the scale of the outflow Thursday (local time) and urged the exchange to "immediately halt the automatic sweeping of funds from user wallets into hot wallets."

Digital asset exchanges typically confirm deposits arriving at individual user addresses before updating balances in their databases. Assets scattered across multiple deposit addresses are then automatically transferred — some to cold wallets for long-term storage, others to hot wallets used for withdrawals. This process is known as a "wallet sweep."

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said Friday that "Binance appears to have been hacked" but added that "user funds are safe." Responding to speculation that total losses could reach around $1 billion, Zhao said the figure "could be larger than that, but the compensation coverage will be sufficient."

Binance co-CEO He Yi said deposits and withdrawals would be temporarily suspended "while security checks, asset freezes and cooperation with law enforcement are under way," adding that the exchange would share detailed findings "as soon as the investigation is complete." Binance also warned users to "be cautious of links and messages sent through unofficial channels."

As hack allegations spread, stablecoin issuers moved to freeze related assets. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company had frozen more than 1.567 billion USDT in connection with the alleged Binance breach. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle had frozen more than 800 million USDC in cooperation with law enforcement. World Liberty Financial also froze approximately $27 million worth of USD1, while Ripple froze approximately $200 million worth of RLUSD.

Meanwhile, separate from the market turmoil, the US government has been emphasizing the strategic importance of digital assets as a tool to reinforce dollar dominance. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking Tuesday (local time) at Ripple's "Swell 2026" conference in New York, said, "We will win the digital asset technology race, and this will further strengthen the status of the US dollar."

Bessent also said dollar-backed stablecoins could expand demand for US government bonds and bolster the dollar's international influence. Bessent added that the Treasury would work with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to overhaul the regulatory framework for digital assets.


kyoung@heraldcorp.com