Strategy buys 811 bitcoin for $65m as North Korea-linked hackers drain Binance
Strategy bought 811 bitcoin for about $65 million in the week that hackers linked to North Korea drained roughly $6.3 billion from Binance, the company said on Monday, its largest purchase since late September. The buying ran from 26 October to 1 November at an average price of about $80,800 per coin, funded by selling common stock, according to the company.
The timing put the purchase in the middle of the industry's worst security breach on record. Crypto intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the Binance theft to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking unit, which moved most of the funds in about 20 minutes. The haul was roughly four times the size of the 2025 Bybit hack, the previous record, and followed a string of North Korean crypto heists that TRM Labs says bankroll the regime's weapons programmes.
Bitcoin fell to a low of $76,600 on Thursday as news of the breach spread on social media. Strategy's disclosure did not say whether it bought during the dip. Executive chairman Michael Saylor hinted at further buying on Sunday, writing in a social media post that the company had "found room for even more orange" alongside a chart of its purchases against the bitcoin price.
Strategy also spent $208 million of its cash to repurchase about 2 million STRC shares, a dividend-paying class of stock. Binance moved quickly and publicly pledged to cover customer losses, but users on X questioned what the breach means for the wider sector. "If Binance can be hacked, then I seriously question how safe this entire industry really is," one user wrote.
The episode sets the resilience of the industry's largest exchange against the appetite of its most prominent corporate holder. Strategy's disclosure did not specify whether the company bought during the price dip.
