Market moves
Bitcoin cracked below $78,000 on Friday, extending its decline after slipping past the $80,000 psychological level to finish at $77,994.96, down over 4%. Ether fell 4.84% to $2,247.45, and Binance's BNB dropped 7.68% to $694.45. There were a few outliers. Hyperliquid's HYPE token jumped 9.7% to $89.08.
The freeze and the possible footprint
Major crypto players moved fast. Circle and Tether together immobilized $2.54 billion in funds they linked to Thursday's suspected incident. According to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, the company restricted upwards of $800 million in USD Coin, and Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the firm halted more than $1.5 billion in USDT transactions potentially linked to the incident.
Binance co-founder Yi He said Ripple helped block the transfer of $200 million in funds tied to the suspected attack. Looking across wallets, Arkham Intelligence pointed to almost $6 billion in digital assets spread over 55 addresses that could be associated with the same activity, suggesting the scope may exceed the amounts already frozen.
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What Binance and others are saying
Binance has not confirmed a hack and said it is examining reports of a potential security problem. A Binance spokesperson said, "Our teams are aware of reports of a potential security issue and are actively investigating," and added that user funds remained safe. Former CEO Changpeng Zhao aimed to reassure observers that customer assets were secure, while acknowledging the situation appeared to be a hack.
What this means for your portfolio
Security worries are back on the front burner. The industry has seen big breaches, including a roughly $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025 and a more recent loss of over $350 million at Bitget. In plain English: headline risk is driving price action. Track token moves and the amounts under freeze, because shifts there are likely to show up in volatility and liquidity across your crypto exposure.
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