Hackers Robbed Binance $6.3B—Now IBIT’s $63B Vault Is on the Hot List

Wall Street analysts are treating the roughly $6.3 billion Binance hack as a potential entry point for crypto-linked equities rather than evidence of a broader breakdown in the market’s recovery. Research notes from Cantor Fitzgerald, TD Cowen and Compass Point said the theft, described as the largest crypto hack ever, is unlikely to derail the industry, as Bitcoin slid toward $77,000 following the exploit. Cantor’s Ramsey El-Assal said, “We would be buyers on weakness,” adding that while the episode was painful, “this is not 2022.”

The analysts attributed much of the immediate reaction to vulnerabilities at Binance rather than to the underlying technology behind Bitcoin. El-Assal noted that stablecoin issuers and other companies froze roughly $3 billion of stolen funds, including more than $1.5 billion by Tether, about $800 million by Circle and around $200 million by Ripple. TD Cowen’s Lance Vitanenza said the breach created an opportunity to add to Bitcoin and public companies that hold it, while Compass Point’s Ed Engel and Michael Donovan said Binance has “more than enough liquidity to cover the hole.”

The selloff affected shares including Coinbase, Robinhood and Strategy, which El-Assal expects to recover once market panic subsides. The strategy centers on exchange-listed companies and Bitcoin proxy stocks as alternatives to holding tokens through a centralized platform. Compass Point also flagged potential pressure on stablecoin supply if Binance reimburses affected customers, along with the possibility of increased business for rivals such as Coinbase and Hyperliquid. The firm is monitoring the $75,000 to $77,000 Bitcoin range.

Risk remains a central concern. Cristiano Ventricelli, vice president of digital assets at Moody’s Ratings, said the incident “underscores the heightened cybersecurity risks associated with hot wallets” and “illustrates the risk concentration inherent in large, centralized intermediaries.” He said its broader implications will depend on “the ultimate losses, affected counterparties, asset recovery, and importantly, whether the incident leads to wider disruption or loss of confidence.”

OneKey founder and CEO Yishi Wang said BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) could become a target for North Korean threat actors. Wang highlighted that the world’s largest bitcoin exchange-traded fund held 815K $BTC, worth nearly $63 billion, and cited Coinbase’s role as its sole custodian as a concentration of risk. Binance has set aside $6.34 billion to cover losses and told users their assets are safe, while the Secret Service and FBI have opened a probe and TRM and Chainalysis have linked the hack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.