WiretechnologyDextape brief
A Decade Ago, a $6.3 Billion Hack Would Have Sunk Binance & BTC, Bitwise CIO Says
Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says the Binance hack would have sunk the exchange a decade ago. Past hacks hit Bitcoin short term.
Dextape brief
Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, says a $6.3 billion theft would have sunk Binance a decade ago, yet he argues Bitcoin's long-term direction remains unchanged. US spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $643 million the day after the breach, though prices had already been falling before the hackers struck. Binance states that roughly $6 billion of the shortfall has been made good and began reopening withdrawals in stages from November 1. Binance said partners had frozen roughly $3 billion, about half of the stolen sum, which Hougan sees as a sign of industry maturity. The FBI links the attack to North Korea. Hougan described it as a conventional cybersecurity breach, rather than a defect in Bitcoin's underlying chain. The article says upcoming fund flows could reveal whether Binance keeps pace with Bybit's near-$3 billion week or loses ground more quickly.
Why it matters: The episode tests how exchange security breaches influence Bitcoin ETF flows and institutional confidence, according to the article's framing.
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