Bitcoin holds near $78,000 as Binance customers pull $3.64bn after $6.3bn heist
Binance customers pulled $3.64 billion, or 2.1% of the exchange's assets, as the platform came back online on Sunday following a $6.3 billion heist that the FBI links to North Korea, according to Token Times. The exchange said withdrawals were stabilising after an initial spike and that deposit volumes had remained substantial, and that it had now covered 95% of the stolen assets.
Bitcoin was up 0.22% at $77,975.62 in early Asian trade, having fallen to a six-week low on Friday, while ether rose 0.27% to $2,268.42 after sliding to a two-month trough last week. Richard Forss, chief technology officer at prime broker EXANTE, said the industry had spent a decade making blockchains mathematically secure but still runs on the assumption that an employee's laptop can be trusted. "That assumption is now the weakest point in digital finance," he said.
The dollar held steady at 101.94 against a basket of currencies as traders braced for a week dominated by Tuesday's US midterm elections, October US jobs data and rate decisions in the UK, Australia, Norway and Sweden. The euro languished near a 17-month low at $1.1159 after Fitch revised France's outlook to negative from stable, sterling was little changed at $1.3387 and the yen eased 0.15% to 157.78 per dollar.
Eric Robertsen, global head of research and chief strategist at Standard Chartered, said polling points to strong anti-incumbent sentiment but that this does not always translate into results, citing Brazil and Israel. He said a Democratic sweep of Congress could put obstacles in the way of data centre and AI infrastructure capex at state level, and would make the next debate on raising the US debt ceiling among the most contentious in recent history.
Andreja Cobeljic, head of derivatives trading at AMINA Bank, said hedge funds had suffered significant losses in October, leaving markets with little capacity to absorb any surprises from the midterms. The Australian dollar was flat at $0.7033 ahead of Tuesday's Reserve Bank of Australia decision, widely expected to lift the cash rate to a near two-decade high of 4.85%, while the New Zealand dollar fell 0.11% to $0.5625 after sliding 1.2% last week when its central bank unexpectedly held rates.
