The largest cryptocurrency theft in history—$6.3 billion from the Binance exchange—is incapable of undermining the long-term prospects of Bitcoin (BTC). This is the position held by Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan, who drew a direct parallel with the Mt. Gox collapse: if a similar incident had occurred ten years ago, it could have destroyed the exchange and the entire market, but today the situation is fundamentally different.
The market is demonstrating resilience. Already on the day following the incident, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded an outflow of $643 million. At the same time, the negative price dynamics of the asset had been forming even before the hack, which indicates the absence of a direct causal link between the theft and the sell-off.
Were previous hacks critical for Bitcoin
The historical context is telling. Mt. Gox, once the largest platform for trading Bitcoin, declared bankruptcy in February 2014—up to 950,000 BTC disappeared. That month, Bitcoin fell by 30%. Creditors only began receiving payouts in 2024, when the value of the lost coins was estimated at over $58 billion.
Bitfinex lost about 120,000 BTC in August 2016. The Bitcoin price fell by 13% over two days, and the decline began even before the incident was officially announced.
In February 2025, Bybit lost approximately $1.5 billion. Its reserves shrank from $10.8 billion to $6.5 billion within a few days. At that time, Bitcoin's dynamics worsened to minus 13.6% amid a large-scale correction. Four days later, outflows from Bitcoin ETFs reached a record $1 billion in a single day.
Is the Binance hack different from the Mt. Gox case
Binance, unlike Mt. Gox, has already covered $6 billion in losses. Since November 1, the withdrawal service has been restored in stages, starting with Bitcoin. According to exchange representatives, partners blocked about $3 billion—nearly half of what was stolen. Hougan sees this as a sign of the industry's maturity.
The Bitwise CIO added that five years ago, institutional investors did not have access to ETFs with a higher level of security. The FBI linked this attack to the DPRK, as it did the Bybit hack. Bitget CEO Gracie Chen claimed that North Korea was highly likely behind the $350 million hack in September.
Hougan described what happened as an ordinary cyberattack rather than a vulnerability of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Cryptalist analysis: The incident confirms a structural shift in the maturity of the crypto market: the presence of compensation mechanisms, the blocking of part of the stolen funds, and the phased restoration of services demonstrate that the infrastructure is capable of absorbing shocks without systemic collapse. For institutional investors, the key signal remains the resilience of Bitcoin's underlying blockchain, not the operational risks of individual exchanges. Cryptalist regards such events as a factor of short-term volatility that does not change the long-term trajectory of the asset.