Binance Hack Deepens Crypto Rout as Market Cap Falls to $2.7T

Key Takeaways

Pre-Hack Weakness

The cryptocurrency economy shed tens of billions of dollars in the final week of October, ending the month down 10% from its opening market capitalization of $3 trillion. The decline was particularly unusual given October’s historical reputation as a strong month for cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.

According to seven-day data from Coingecko, bitcoin, which came close to reclaiming its year-opening price on Oct. 6, ended the final week of the month down 3.3%. The decline pushed the cryptocurrency’s year-to-date losses to 11%, effectively reversing an upward trend that began in August.

While a sell-off triggered by the Binance hack pushed bitcoin to nearly two-month lows, the cryptocurrency was already struggling. Prior to the breach, bitcoin had dropped over 7% after failing to clear the $87,000 resistance level in the first week of the month. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, this was bitcoin’s weakest October performance since 2014 and its first back-to-back October loss since 2011–2012, sparking concerns over its November outlook.

October was equally challenging for altcoins, with ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, suffering even steeper losses. Like bitcoin, ETH rallied during the first week of October as the broader cryptocurrency market appeared to sustain September’s momentum. However, after briefly surpassing $2,700, ETH began a steady decline, falling to $2,300 by Oct. 29.

The sell-off following the Binance hack pushed ETH below $2,190 before a relief rally lifted it back above $2,200. Consequently, ETH ended the week down nearly 4%, extending its 30-day losses to more than 15%.

Other major altcoins, including solana (SOL) and cardano (ADA), suffered even steeper weekly declines, falling 7% and 6.6%, respectively. Many other altcoins recorded seven-day losses ranging from 3% to 4%.

Despite the broader downturn, a handful of altcoins managed to post weekly gains. Hyperliquid’s HYPE token, which came close to surpassing its all-time high on Oct. 29, ended the week up 13.6%, while zcash (ZEC) gained 0.6%. LEO, QNT and UNI also posted gains of 4.6%, 2.5% and 2.3%, respectively.

However, losses across bitcoin and numerous large-cap altcoins weighed heavily on the broader market, dragging the cryptocurrency economy’s total market capitalization from $2.8 trillion on Oct. 25 to $2.7 trillion by Nov. 1.