Bitcoin traded around $77,350 after the Binance security breach sent shockwaves through cryptocurrency markets, triggering $1.57 billion in futures liquidations and intensifying selling pressure across major digital assets.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange suffered an estimated $6.3 billion exploit, which blockchain analytics companies TRM Labs and Elliptic attributed to North Korean-linked attackers. Following the incident, BTC plunged to $76,400 overnight, its weakest price since Sept. 18, before recovering some ground.

Ether (ETH) followed a similar pattern, briefly falling to $2,170 before rebounding toward $2,220.

Approximately $3 billion in assets connected to the exploit have been frozen, while Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals. The incident has added fresh uncertainty to an already fragile crypto market.

Pressure from traditional financial markets also contributed to the downturn. Nasdaq-100 futures declined 2.3% after Amazon (AMZN) increased its capital expenditure forecast, while Intel (INTC) shares plunged around 25% following disappointing guidance.

Meanwhile, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $17 million in net inflows on Thursday, extending their positive streak to four consecutive sessions, according to Farside Investors. The purchases occurred before the Binance exploit.

Crypto Futures Liquidations Reach $1.57 Billion

Forced closures accelerate: Liquidations across cryptocurrency futures markets surged fourfold to $1.57 billion as the Binance incident triggered sharp price declines. Trading volume increased 74% to $346.1 billion, while open interest dropped 3% to $136.3 billion. The figures indicate that traders were unwinding positions and capital was moving out of derivatives markets. The taker buy-sell volume ratio also showed a slight selling bias after remaining evenly balanced the previous day.

Bitcoin and ether derivatives show different trends: BTC declined 3.1% over 24 hours, while its open interest decreased by just 1.4%, suggesting a modest amount of capital entered the market during the selloff. ETH lost 4%, but its open interest fell 5.8%, indicating some money exited its futures market.

Bitcoin’s funding rate remained positive and increased, meaning traders holding long positions were paying shorts. Ether funding also stayed positive but declined, pointing to weakening bullish exposure. The two largest cryptocurrencies accounted for more than half of all liquidations, with BTC recording $522 million and ETH $361 million.

SOL and NEAR futures see capital withdrawals: Solana’s (SOL) open interest contracted 13.3% alongside a 3.3% price decline, indicating that traders were reducing their futures exposure. NEAR remained relatively stable in price, but its open interest dropped 11.8%, marking another day of capital outflows.

Funding rates for both assets turned negative, meaning short traders were paying long holders. Their cumulative volume delta (CVD) readings were also negative, showing that market sell orders outweighed buying activity.

BNB open interest holds steady: BNB dropped 6.2%, recording the largest decline among major cryptocurrencies, while its dollar-denominated open interest remained relatively unchanged. Trading volume more than tripled. Negative funding indicated that short traders were paying longs, while negative CVD reflected dominant selling through market orders.

HYPE attracts fresh derivatives activity: HYPE gained 15% as open interest increased 28%, suggesting that capital flowed into its futures market despite widespread weakness elsewhere. Trading volume jumped nearly eightfold.

Its funding rate rose further into positive territory, indicating that long traders were paying higher costs to maintain their positions. Positive CVD readings also showed that market buying orders dominated.

Funding rates reveal mixed positioning: Positive funding continued across most major cryptocurrencies, meaning long traders were compensating short traders. However, BNB, SOL, NEAR and TRX moved into negative funding territory, where shorts were paying longs.

TRX recorded the most negative funding overnight. Monero (XMR) had the highest positive funding rate, followed by HYPE.

Market selling dominates most CVD readings: All major cryptocurrencies except TRX, HYPE, ZEC, XMR and BCH recorded negative 24-hour open-interest-adjusted CVD. This indicates that market sell orders exceeded market purchases relative to outstanding positions across most of the sector.

Options markets favor protection against further declines: Five of the six most actively traded bitcoin options were puts with strike prices below BTC’s current price. The $74,000 put expiring Nov. 13 led trading activity.

Bearish positioning was even more pronounced in ether options. The $2,000 put expiring Nov. 13 recorded more than twice the volume of any other ETH contract, while only one of the six most-traded options was a call.

Demand for downside protection increases: The 25-delta skew, which compares the cost of put options with calls, increased across all measured time frames for both BTC and ETH. The move suggests traders are paying more for protection against additional price declines.

Thirty-day implied volatility indices also spiked during Asian trading as the Binance exploit increased demand for put options, although some of those gains were later reversed.

Tokens Linked to Binance Exploit Rebound

Several cryptocurrencies reportedly held and sold by the Binance attacker led the recovery, with Ethena (ENA) rising 8.4%, Pepe (PEPE) gaining 7.3%, Uniswap (UNI) advancing 4.6% and Chainlink (LINK) climbing 3.7%.

Uniswap and Aave had each fallen approximately 11% on Thursday as the attacker exchanged assets for ether, according to Lookonchain.

Aave (AAVE) and Arbitrum (ARB) subsequently recovered around 4.5%. Aave had frozen lending markets across 16 networks after the exploiter borrowed approximately $44.6 million in ether against stolen USDT.

Thorchain (RUNE) advanced 6.2% after Elliptic and onchain investigator ZachXBT traced part of the stolen funds into Ethereum through the cross-chain protocol.

LayerZero (ZRO) surged 12%, making it the strongest performer in the CoinDesk 100. Curve (CRV) declined 7.2%, while Tron (TRX) dropped 4.9%.

Broader market sentiment weakened further. CoinMarketCap’s Altcoin Season Index fell to 45 from 54 on Thursday, while its Fear and Greed Index declined to 36 from 43, indicating that investors remained firmly in the “fear” zone.