Big investors pull crypto off exchanges after Binance hack

This updates our October 30 story on the Binance hack. CoinDesk now reports that big institutional investors are rushing to withdraw crypto from exchanges. Binance estimated that about $6.3 billion was stolen on October 29. About $3 billion has since been frozen. Binance paused withdrawals, and co-CEO Yi He said it will cover all losses.

A centralized exchange is a company like Binance that holds your coins while you trade. If it gets hacked, your balance is only as safe as its defenses. CoinDesk's sources say investors are rebalancing their trading books. They did not say how much money is moving or where it is going. The report is anonymous, so treat it as unconfirmed. The wider backdrop is rough. Security firm CertiK recorded $1.28 billion in crypto losses in the third quarter, up nearly 56% from the quarter before.

Keep reading — what to watch

Will other exchanges see the same outflows? Watch whether Binance reopens withdrawals smoothly. Watch, too, whether big investors start holding more of their own coins instead of leaving them on exchanges. The National expects institutions to become more selective about where they keep assets. That is an expectation, not yet a fact.