Bitcoin has slipped below $77,000 during an Oct. 30 sell-off following Binance’s estimated $6.3 billion security breach, leaving traders watching whether buyers can defend support and recover $80,000.
Summary
- • Bitcoin’s descending channel puts the $76,200–$76,800 support zone in focus after the exchange breach.
- • Blockaid traced at least $3.5 billion leaving Binance wallets across four blockchains within an hour.
- • Nansen identified stolen stablecoins being used as collateral to borrow ETH through Aave.
- • Experts say withdrawal access, reserve verification and trading liquidity will help determine whether contagion develops.
Binance market data placed Bitcoin at $76,944 shortly after midnight UTC, before a recovery toward $78,000 later in the session. The exchange’s breach has drawn attention to both the money stolen and the pressure that could follow if customers, lenders and market makers withdraw funds.
In a subsequent update reported by Reuters, Binance said it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds, including $5 billion held in affected token assets. Partners had frozen approximately $3 billion, separately from those reserves.
Bitcoin buyers face a descending channel
Within the technical picture, Token Talk’s Oct. 30 chart placed Bitcoin near $78,300, above a support zone between $76,200 and $76,800. The analyst described several weeks of lower highs inside a descending channel, with buyers repeatedly stepping in near its lower boundary.
A recovery scenario depends on Bitcoin reclaiming $80,000 and breaking the channel’s upper trendline, according to the post. Such a move could bring $84,000–$86,500 back into consideration.
Rekt Fencer offered a more bullish interpretation, declaring that Bitcoin’s bottom was in. His weekly chart marked the FTX collapse, the 2025 Bybit hack and the Binance incident, although the post provided no separate confirmation that selling had ended.
Speaking to crypto.news, Lacie Zhang, research lead at Bitget Wallet, identified $76,000–$77,000 as the area to hold. Recovering $80,000 through sustained spot demand would signal stabilization, she said.
Binance wallet takeover exposed withdrawal controls
Blockaid’s initial analysis traced at least $3.5 billion leaving Binance hot wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism and Avalanche in under an hour.
“The attacker effectively reprogrammed a major Binance Ethereum hot wallet so that a single operator could drain it, including any new money deposited into it, and they used that access again more than an hour later,” Ido Ben-Natan, Blockaid’s co-founder and CEO, told crypto.news.
His team identified advance preparation involving Tornado Cash funding and rehearsals on test wallets hours before the theft.
Although initial investigations pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, Binance subsequently reported additional points of breach, according to AFP. The company described a complex attack, making the laptop an initial finding rather than a complete explanation.
Stefan Deiss, CEO of The Hashgraph Group, which develops enterprise identity infrastructure, told crypto.news that trusted access requires independent controls. His recommendations for financial AI agents included verified identities, accountable human operators, spending limits, and an off switch.
Nansen tracks stolen funds into Aave borrowing
Nansen’s analysis, shared with crypto.news, traced 18,270 BTC worth approximately $1.48 billion from a Binance hot wallet through a central address and into 19 wallets. The funds had not moved again when its analysis was prepared.
On Ethereum, the attacker deposited approximately $60 million in USDT into Aave and borrowed $43.5 million worth of ETH, Nansen found.
Across exploiter-linked wallets, the firm identified 442,000 ETH, including two addresses holding 197,500 ETH and 137,600 ETH. Another wallet transferred 14,000 ETH.
Its investigation followed $414 million in assets, including WBETH, ENA, RLUSD, UNI, PEPE, and LINK, through 11 wallets that swapped tokens on decentralized exchanges. Circle had frozen $823 million in USDC, while 233.46 million XRP, valued at approximately $297 million, remained in one wallet.
Nansen’s figures describe separate traced holdings and movements at its reporting snapshot, rather than a new estimate of Binance’s total losses.
Withdrawal pressure could outlast the initial theft
Zhang said a systemic crisis was not Bitget Wallet’s base case, but prolonged withdrawal restrictions or doubts over reserves could cause lenders and market makers to retreat. Stablecoin depegging and deteriorating market depth would be warning signs.
Varun Datta, founder and CEO of Truth Ventures, told crypto.news that reimbursement capacity and operational access are separate questions.
“An emergency fund can pay for missing coins, but it cannot resolve every reason withdrawals might stop,” Datta said.
He highlighted asset mismatches in emergency reserves. In his example, a fund holding $1 billion in Bitcoin against $1 billion owed in stablecoins would face a $100 million shortfall after a 10% Bitcoin decline.
Andrew Lazutkin, CTO of self-custody provider Tangem, said offline wallets reduce exposure to exchange breaches while leaving users responsible for phishing and malware risks.
Chris Dimitriadis, chief global strategy officer at ISACA, warned that criminals could exploit the incident through messages urging users to act immediately. He told crypto.news that boards should treat cyber risk as a standing priority and ensure employees can recognize targeted attacks.
