Bitcoin (BTC) is trading sharply lower this Friday (30), weighed down by the hack of roughly $6.3 billion suffered by Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. The news triggered a wave of selling across the crypto market and led to the liquidation of more than $1.5 billion in leveraged positions over the past 24 hours.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value fell to around $76,460 overnight, its lowest level in roughly six weeks, before staging a partial recovery.

This morning, Bitcoin was down 3%, trading at $77,409 over 24 hours. In euros, the world's largest cryptocurrency stood at around €69,441, according to data from Portal do Bitcoin. Ethereum, meanwhile, dropped 3.9% to $2,222. XRP fell 2.9%, while Solana slid 3.4% and BNB dropped 6.6%.

The market remains focused on the scale of the attack on Binance and its possible impact on liquidity and investor confidence.

According to data from CoinGlass, approximately $1.53 billion in leveraged positions was liquidated over the past 24 hours. Of that total, $1.29 billion, or 83.8%, consisted of bets on rising prices that were caught off guard by the sharp decline.

Read also: Binance loses more than $5 billion in the largest hack in cryptocurrency history

Bitcoin accounted for roughly $499 million of those liquidations, followed by Ethereum with $358 million. Solana recorded $82.6 million, XRP $38.1 million and Dogecoin (DOGE) $18.6 million.

Most of the losses occurred within a single 12-hour window, during which approximately $1.37 billion in positions was forcibly closed.

Attack on Binance triggers wave of liquidations

The decline in Bitcoin gathered pace after Binance disclosed on Thursday (29) details of a hack that is estimated to have compromised approximately $6.3 billion in cryptocurrencies.

That figure is an estimate of the assets affected by the incident and remains subject to investigation and the recovery of funds. If confirmed as a theft, the episode would surpass the $1.5 billion attack suffered by Bybit in February 2025, previously considered the largest in the sector's history.

Binance said approximately $3 billion in assets involved in the attack had already been frozen with the cooperation of industry firms, including stablecoin issuers. The exchange also temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals to carry out security checks and pledged to cover customer losses.

One hypothesis under investigation is that the attacker compromised the computer of a company engineer, gaining access that allowed unauthorised withdrawals. The exact origin of the breach has not yet been clarified.

The episode has increased risk aversion in the market, triggering sales that were amplified by the automatic closing of leveraged positions.

When an investor uses leverage, they control a position larger than the capital actually posted as collateral. If the asset's price moves against the bet, the exchange may close the position to prevent further losses.

In the case of buy positions, known as longs, these liquidations can trigger further selling, adding pressure on prices and setting off additional liquidations.

Binance accounted for approximately $754.6 million in liquidated positions, equivalent to 49.2% of the market total. Hyperliquid came next with $251.4 million, while Bybit recorded $186.5 million.

The largest single liquidation identified by CoinGlass was a long Bitcoin position of approximately $11 million on Binance.

However, Bitcoin's partial recovery overnight also began to hit investors betting on a continued decline. In the most recent four-hour window of the survey, $57.3 million of the $85 million liquidated corresponded to short positions.

This happens because closing short positions requires buying back the asset, which can help accelerate price recoveries.

Standard Chartered sees risk of further Bitcoin declines

Despite Bitcoin's partial recovery, Standard Chartered believes the cryptocurrency market could remain under pressure in the coming days.

In comments reported by CoinDesk, Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, said the negative price reaction could continue while doubts persist over the attack on Binance and over the release of the frozen funds.

"I think there's more downside to the price reaction. Only once the assets are unlocked and more details about the attack emerge will we find a new base," Kendrick said.

The assessment holds that the extent of the losses and Binance's ability to restore its operations will be decisive for restoring investor confidence.

The analyst also believes the episode could accelerate a shift of trading activity from centralised exchanges to decentralised platforms, which allow cryptocurrencies to be traded directly through smart contracts.

In this scenario, Kendrick pointed to Uniswap, arguing that the attack on the world's largest centralised exchange could boost the share of decentralised exchanges in total trading volume.

He maintained his $100 price target for the UNI token by 2030 and said the incident could reinforce the case for that estimate.

For now, however, tokens linked to decentralised platforms have also been hit by the sell-off. UNI was down more than 3%, in line with the broader negative move across the sector.

The attack on Binance also came on the same day that prediction market platform Polymarket temporarily suspended international trading following a security incident that caused losses exceeding $2.6 million in user accounts.

For Bitcoin, upcoming price moves are expected to continue to be driven by updates on Binance, particularly the recovery of the diverted assets, the resumption of the exchange's services, and the market's capacity to absorb the recent wave of liquidations.

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