NANJING, CHINA – OCTOBER 30: In this photo illustration, the logo of Binance is displayed on a smartphone screen on October 30, 2026 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China.
VCG/VCG via Getty Images
Binance said it was hacked on Friday, impacting $6.3 billion of assets on the exchange.
The impact has rippled across crypto and crypto-linked stocks.
Binance said it would cover all losses and that users’ funds are safe.
A massive hack of Binance is sending shockwaves through digital assets and crypto-linked stocks on Friday.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said on Friday that a compromised engineer’s laptop may have allowed hackers to gain access to the platform. It said that $6.3 billion of assets were impacted.
The news sent crypto prices down across the board, with Bitcoin , Ethereum , Solana all falling at least 4% Friday morning while and BNB, the native crypto of the Binance ecosystem, fell 6.5%. Crypto-linked stocks were also pulled down. Bitcoin’s drop to around $76,700 puts it at its lowest level in a month.
“The market is currently undergoing a crucial test of buyer sentiment,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro. “In theory, we could see a wave of sell-offs due to a reassessment of risks facing the sector.”
As of Friday morning, more than $3 billion in crypto assets are currently frozen on-chain as the company maneuvers quickly to cover the damage caused by the hack. The largest crypto theft to date, it is already viewed as one of the most significant financial heists on record. The most recent similarly sized hack occurred in February 2025, when North Korean hackers made off with $1.5 billion in crypto assets from Dubai exchange platform Bybit.
The immediate market impact of Friday’s cyber attack has been a quick risk-off wave washing over the space.
Here are some of the crypto-linked stocks that were impacted by news of the hack:
Coinbase : -11.5%
Circle Internet Group : -9%
Strategy : -10%
Riot Platforms : -8.5%
Galaxy Digital : -7%
Many of the stock losses outpace the declines in bitcoin and other cryptos. Digital security pros also say that more attacks of this magnitude are possible, which could compel investors to move assets off of exchanges or simply exit crypto markets altogether.
“A cyber attack of this level is a matter of if, not when, particularly alongside the rise of AI,” said Andy Ward, SVP International at Absolute Security. “Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated and widespread as ever, and it is likely only a matter of time before an even larger hack, with even greater financial fallout, makes headlines.”
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