Bitcoin held steady above $77,000 on Saturday as investors monitored the aftermath of the record $6.3 billion Binance hack. The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading down 1.71% at $77,175.4 as of 01:34 ET, following sharp declines in crypto-linked stocks after the security breach late Thursday.
Attention has shifted to the hackers’ efforts to launder stolen funds, with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis identifying unusual transaction patterns. Investigators linked the activity to Tradertraitor, a North Korean hacking group, after tracing connections to the September Bitget breach. The attackers also converted $325 million in stablecoins into $285 million in ether, likely to evade freezes.
Binance announced plans to restore withdrawals in phases and reserved over $6.34 billion to cover losses. The exchange also plans to publish proof-of-reserves data by Monday, November 2. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald, TD Cowen, and Compass Point argued that the breach does not threaten Bitcoin’s underlying technology or the broader market’s recovery.
Meanwhile, stablecoin issuer reported $1.5 billion in third-quarter operating profit, bringing its nine-month total to $4.5 billion. The issuer’s reserves reached $191.5 billion, exceeding liabilities by nearly $8 billion. Legal experts cautioned that freezing tokens does not guarantee recovery, leaving the Binance investigation’s outcome uncertain.