Crypto stocks and digital assets were stabilizing Monday after the $6.3 billion Binance hack, with one notable exception -- Coinbase.
The stock was down 2.9% in early trading Monday after a 10.6% drop on Friday. The shares fell 23% in October, and it isn't looking like a great start to November.
That's after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight, slashing its price target to $120 from $258, in a note early Monday.
The heist at crypto exchange Binance is just the latest factor hitting sentiment in what's been a weak trading environment for crypto recently.
"While Coinbase continues to execute on its broader strategy, recent trading trends, a softer forward revenue outlook and uncertainty around the backdrop for crypto in the recent context of the recent Binance hack suggest a weaker recovery than we previously anticipated," Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys said in a note Monday.
While Coinbase wasn't directly impacted by the hack, Cyprus said the incident could "weigh on confidence in centralized crypto platforms, potentially leading to reduced retail engagement, softer trading activity, and slower institutional adoption."
Elsewhere, crypto assets were doing better to start the week. Bitcoin rose above $78,000 after slumping close to 7% from its Friday high to its Saturday low of $76,563. Ethereum rose 0.8% to $2,288 and popular altcoin XRP edged higher to $1.25. Strategy was up more than 2% and Robinhood was flat.
North Korea was responsible, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Saturday, specifically a state-sponsored cybercrime unit called TraderTraitor.
Binance suspended withdrawals but began restoring them on Sunday. It reported $3.64 billion in net outflows in the first nine and a half hours after resuming withdrawals, but added that after an initial spike withdrawal volumes declined and stabilized.
The company also said it has covered $6 billion of the amount lost in the hack.
The hack is still a hugely concerning event for cryptos but the selling has at least eased and, if it stays like this, the damage won't be too bad.
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