Bitcoin remained near $77,350 following the estimated $6.3 billion Binance exploit, which triggered widespread selling and pushed crypto futures liquidations to $1.57 billion.
BTC briefly touched $76,400 overnight, its weakest level since Sept. 18, after Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, suffered the attack. Blockchain intelligence firms TRM Labs and Elliptic linked the incident to North Korean hackers.
Bitcoin subsequently recovered part of its losses. Ether (ETH) also bounced after briefly falling to $2,170, returning to approximately $2,220.
Around $3 billion of the stolen funds have been frozen, while Binance has temporarily halted withdrawals. The incident has added to uncertainty across digital asset markets.
Weakness in traditional markets compounded the pressure. Nasdaq-100 futures declined 2.3% after Amazon (AMZN) increased its capital spending forecast, while Intel (INTC) shares tumbled approximately 25% following disappointing forward guidance.
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs attracted $17 million on Thursday, recording a fourth consecutive day of net inflows, according to Farside Investors. Those purchases occurred before the Binance attack started.
Derivatives Markets Record $1.57 Billion in Liquidations
Futures liquidations quadruple: Forced closures across cryptocurrency futures markets climbed to $1.57 billion, roughly four times the previous level, as the Binance exploit sent prices lower. Trading volume expanded 74% to $346.1 billion, whereas open interest declined 3% to $136.3 billion. The drop in outstanding contracts indicates that traders were closing positions and withdrawing capital from derivatives. The taker buy-sell ratio also tilted slightly toward sellers after showing a balanced market a day earlier.
BTC and ETH positioning diverges: Bitcoin lost 3.1% over 24 hours, but open interest decreased by only 1.4%, suggesting a small amount of fresh capital entered during the decline. Ether dropped 4%, accompanied by a 5.8% contraction in open interest, pointing to capital leaving its futures market.
Bitcoin funding rates remained positive and moved higher, indicating that long traders were paying shorts to maintain their positions. Ether funding also stayed above zero but declined, reflecting a reduction in bullish positioning. Together, BTC and ETH accounted for more than half of all liquidations, with $522 million and $361 million, respectively.
SOL and NEAR lose derivatives capital: Solana’s (SOL) open interest fell 13.3% as its price declined 3.3%, suggesting traders substantially reduced their futures exposure. NEAR recorded little price movement, but its open interest dropped 11.8%, extending its outflow trend to a second consecutive day.
Both assets shifted to negative funding rates, meaning short traders were paying long holders. Negative cumulative volume delta (CVD) readings also indicated that market sell orders dominated.
BNB records the steepest major-token decline: BNB fell 6.2%, making it the weakest performer among major cryptocurrencies, even though its dollar-denominated open interest remained broadly unchanged. Trading volume increased more than threefold. Its negative funding rate showed that shorts were paying longs, while negative CVD reflected stronger selling activity.
HYPE attracts traders during the downturn: HYPE gained 15% as open interest climbed 28%, indicating that new capital entered its derivatives market while most cryptocurrencies declined. Trading volume surged nearly eight times.
Its funding rate increased further into positive territory, showing that long traders were paying more to maintain exposure. Positive CVD readings also pointed to stronger buying through market orders.
Funding rates reflect growing market division: Positive funding remained common across major tokens, meaning long traders continued compensating short traders. However, BNB, SOL, NEAR and TRX moved into negative territory, where shorts pay longs.
TRX recorded the lowest funding rate overnight. Monero (XMR) led in positive funding, followed by HYPE.
Negative CVD highlights broad selling pressure: Most major cryptocurrencies posted negative 24-hour open-interest-adjusted CVD readings. TRX, HYPE, ZEC, XMR and BCH were the exceptions, suggesting that selling orders outweighed buying activity across much of the market.
Bitcoin and ether options show defensive positioning: Five of the six most actively traded BTC options were put contracts with strike prices below the current market price. The $74,000 put expiring Nov. 13 recorded the highest volume.
Ether options displayed an even stronger preference for downside protection. The $2,000 put expiring Nov. 13 traded at more than twice the volume of any other ETH option, while only one of the six busiest contracts was a call.
Traders increase demand for downside protection: The 25-delta skew, which measures the relative pricing of puts against calls, increased across every measured time frame for both BTC and ETH. This suggests investors are increasingly willing to pay for protection against further declines.
Thirty-day implied volatility indices also surged during Asian trading as the Binance exploit prompted demand for put options. However, some of the increase was later erased.
Attacker-Linked Tokens Lead the Market Rebound
Several cryptocurrencies reportedly held and sold by the Binance attacker outperformed during the recovery. Ethena (ENA) rose 8.4%, Pepe (PEPE) gained 7.3%, Uniswap (UNI) advanced 4.6% and Chainlink (LINK) increased 3.7%.
Uniswap and Aave had previously fallen approximately 11% on Thursday as the attacker exchanged assets for ether, according to Lookonchain.
Aave (AAVE) and Arbitrum (ARB) subsequently gained around 4.5%. Aave had suspended lending markets across 16 networks after the exploiter borrowed approximately $44.6 million worth of ether against stolen USDT.
Thorchain (RUNE) advanced 6.2% as Elliptic and onchain investigator ZachXBT traced some of the stolen assets into Ethereum through the cross-chain protocol.
LayerZero (ZRO) climbed 12%, leading gains across the CoinDesk 100 index. Curve (CRV) declined 7.2%, while Tron (TRX) dropped 4.9%.
Market sentiment indicators continued to weaken. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index slipped to 45 from 54 on Thursday, while its Fear and Greed Index declined to 36 from 43, keeping sentiment firmly in the “fear” zone.
