Abstract:
Bitcoin fell below $77,000 for the first time in more than a month, and Binance suffered a record hacking attack that shocked the cryptocurrency industry and once again raised questions about the security of customer assets, even on the world's largest digital asset exchange.
Bitcoin fell as much as 3.1% on Friday, hitting as low as $76,300, but recovered slightly in afternoon trading in New York. Other coins also fell, including some affected by the security breach. Binance’s BNB token has fallen about 7% since Wednesday to around $700. "The overall cryptocurrency market was already bearish, which is why the sell-off spread so quickly and across the board," said Jeff Ko, chief analyst at ViaBTC. He added that Binance has the ability to absorb these losses.
Will Tamplin, senior analyst at Fairlead Strategies, believes that as Bitcoin "digests this event," further pullbacks are likely in the coming days, but this week's moves "provide opportunities to increase exposure."
But Miller Tabak + Co. Chief market strategist Matt Maley sees things differently. He said, "The most worrying scenario is that this incident may cause institutional investors to exit this asset class. Their future demand is critical to the prospects of cryptocurrencies, but they are likely to retreat if the market has concerns about operational security or counterparty risk."
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