Bitcoin and Ethereum prices fell following a suspected $6.3 billion security breach at Binance and an attack on the Polymarket platform.
Standard Chartered said cryptocurrency prices may continue to face pressure before finding a new support level. As concerns over security issues resurfaced, the cryptocurrency market experienced a broad sell-off. Standard Chartered expects further downward pressure on the market in the near term.
As of Friday morning, Bitcoin (BTC) had dropped more than 3% over the past 24 hours to around $77,400, after briefly falling toward $76,000 just hours earlier. Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), XRP, and Solana (SOL) posted slightly larger declines.
The sell-off hit leveraged futures traders particularly hard. At the time of writing, total market liquidations had reached $1.5 billion, with long positions betting on higher prices absorbing the bulk of the losses. Bitcoin-related liquidations amounted to $468 million, followed by Ethereum at $358 million.
Binance said on Thursday that a security incident affected approximately $6.3 billion worth of crypto assets, surpassing the $1.5 billion record set by the Bybit hack in 2025. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on social media that "this really does look like a hack." Zhao, widely known by his nickname CZ, no longer runs the exchange but remains a significant shareholder.
Binance said in a social media post that the suspected breach may have involved an engineer's laptop being compromised, allowing attackers to withdraw assets without authorization. Stablecoin issuers moved quickly to contain the potential fallout.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on social media that the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT linked to the potential Binance hack, adding that protecting the industry and its partners is the company's top priority. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said on social media that the company had coordinated with law enforcement to freeze more than $800 million in USDC connected to the incident and would continue to support the investigation. First Digital founder and CEO Vincent Chok said the FDUSD stolen in the attack had been frozen. Chok said in an email that "the FDUSD stolen in this attack has been frozen, and we are closely monitoring the situation. We are working with the Binance team and will provide updates as new information becomes available. Our top priority is protecting FDUSD holders and preventing bad actors from moving stolen funds. Protecting users is a shared responsibility for all of us."
Earlier on Thursday, decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket suspended international trading operations after hackers stole more than $2.6 million from user accounts. Standard Chartered expects further declines. Geoffrey Kendrick, global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, said in an email that back-to-back security incidents at two of the most prominent platforms in the crypto industry could keep prices under pressure for some time.
He said the overnight news of the Binance hack, which is still under investigation, along with the freezing of related assets, caused cryptocurrency prices and crypto-related stock prices to fall sharply. He suspects this negative price action will persist for a while. Only after the assets are unfrozen and more details about the hack emerge will the market be able to find a new price bottom.
Kendrick said investors should eventually shift their funds toward decentralized exchanges. He believes Binance's troubles could accelerate the structural trend of the market moving from centralized platforms to decentralized ones. He said he would encourage investors to reinvest in Uniswap. This decentralized exchange (DEX) has never suffered any exploit, and the hacking of Binance, the largest centralized exchange (CEX), should push the DEX-to-CEX trading volume ratio even higher.
Kendrick maintained his target price of $100 for the Uniswap token UNI by 2030 and said the Binance hack is another reason this forecast may ultimately prove too conservative. Decentralized exchange tokens fall. For now, however, DEX-related tokens have not been immune to the broader risk-off sentiment sweeping the market.
Uniswap's UNI token fell more than 3% over the past 24 hours, in line with the broader market decline. Most DEX-related tokens also fell, including Aster, Pump.fun's PUMP, Jupiter's JUP, and Litentry's LIT. Hyperliquid's HYPE token was a notable exception, rising 15%.
Earlier, Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a partnership with Trade.xyz to bring perpetual futures trading powered by Hyperliquid to the U.S. market, subject to regulatory approval.
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