Bybit, Bitget, Binance: Crypto Market Shrugs Off Record Hacks

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The biggest crypto theft of all time, and Bitcoin loses a mere 5 percent. After the hack at Binance, which cost the exchange about $6.3 billion (about €5.7 billion), the market slipped but remained far from a crash like the one that followed the collapse of FTX in November 2022. The same pattern emerged after the hacks at Bybit in February 2025 and at Bitget in September 2026. An analysis of price data shows how much the market fell in each case.

What Prices Show After the Hacks

For the comparison, the price at the full hour before each hack became known was compared with the low over the following 24 hours, based on hourly prices on the Binance exchange against the stablecoin USDT. For the overall market, the hourly market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies according to CoinMarketCap was used. For the FTX collapse, the calculation starts with the post by Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, announcing the sale of FTX’s token and ends with the low three days later. The table therefore shows the maximum decline after each hack. The usual 24-hour change shown on price sites tends to be smaller because prices have already recovered somewhat from the low. The figure for BGB comes from market reports because the token is not traded on Binance.

After the Binance hack, the overall crypto market lost about $130 billion in value, falling from about $2.70 trillion to $2.57 trillion. That is only about a fifth of the decline after the FTX collapse, when market capitalization plunged from about $1.06 trillion to $792 billion. The ratio is similar for Bitcoin and Ether. And that is despite the fact that the haul at Binance was more than four times as large as at Bybit. Twenty-four hours after the Bitget hack, the overall market was even slightly higher. Only Bitget’s own token, BGB, fell.

One important caveat: FTX also looked harmless in the first 24 hours. Bitcoin initially lost only about 3 percent. The real crash came only when FTX halted withdrawals and it became clear that customer funds were missing. Bitcoin is currently trading at about $77,500 (about €69,600), a little more than 4 percent below its level before the Binance hack.

Why a Hack Is Different From FTX

The key difference is who bears the loss. At FTX, the exchange had misused customer funds, the hole could not be plugged, and bankruptcy followed a few days later. FTX customers have been getting their money back only gradually since 2025. In the three hacks, by contrast, part of each exchange’s corporate wallets was looted, but the exchanges themselves remained solvent and pledged to cover the losses from their own funds.

On top of that, part of the loot can now be blocked. In the Binance case, the stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle have frozen about $3 billion, according to the exchange. Stolen stablecoins are worthless to the attackers as long as the freeze remains in place.

How the Exchanges Responded

The responses of Bybit, Bitget and Binance follow a similar pattern but differ on one crucial point: whether withdrawals stay open.

• Quick confirmation: All three exchanges publicly confirmed the attack within a few hours. Binance also warned users about scams using fake links and requests for account information, which often accompany such incidents.
• Assurance of backing: All three said customer funds remained backed one to one and that no one would lose money.
• Covering the loss: Bybit closed the gap with its own funds, bridge loans from other crypto companies and purchases of Ether. Bitget is drawing on its Protection Fund, and Binance on its SAFU emergency fund and corporate funds.
• Halting withdrawals, or not: Bitget and Binance suspended withdrawals to review their systems. Bybit deliberately kept them open and, according to an analysis by Four Pillars, processed more than 350,000 withdrawals in the first 10 hours, almost 100 times the usual volume.
• Staggered reopening: Bitget gradually reopened withdrawals four days after the hack, first for Bitcoin, then for Ether, USDT and other tokens. Deposits and trading continued at all three exchanges.
• Hunting the loot: The exchanges are working with blockchain analytics firms, security companies and law enforcement, and Bybit and Bitget also offered rewards for information leading to the stolen funds.

In every case, the goal was the same: preventing a bank run. When many customers try to withdraw their money at once, even a healthy exchange can run into trouble. Bybit set out to prove its trustworthiness by keeping withdrawals open and closed its Ether gap after about three days. Among its lenders, of all companies, was Bitget. Bitget and Binance, on the other hand, opted for a controlled restart, combined with a promise to disclose their reserves.

Why the All-Clear May Be Premature

Whether the market really can absorb the Binance hack this well will become clear only in the coming days. Withdrawals at Binance remain suspended. According to Decrypt, the exchange plans to reopen them in about 45 hours. At the same time, Binance says it has found additional points of breach. At Bitget, the estimated loss was revised upward after the hack from about $352 million to about $388 million. Only once withdrawals are running and a new proof of reserves is available will it be possible to say whether customer trust is holding.

Geoffrey Kendrick, the head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, expects further price declines. In his view, the market will find a new floor only once the frozen funds are released and more details about the hack become known. It is also hard to separate the effects of a hack cleanly from other factors. The Binance hack hit a market that was already nervous, weighed down by interest rate worries and falling tech stocks. And Binance operates on a different scale than Bybit or Bitget: According to DefiLlama, the exchange managed about $144 billion in customer assets before the hack.