Worried About Crypto Hacks? Buy Bitcoin Proxies in Stock Market Instead, Say Wall Street Firms — SkimNews
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- Binance lost roughly $6.3 billion in the largest crypto hack ever, set aside $6.34 billion to cover losses and told users their assets were safe; the Secret Service and FBI opened probes, and TRM and Chainalysis tied the theft to North Korea's TraderTraitor group.
- Bitcoin slid toward $77,000 the day after the exploit rattled markets.
- Tether and other stablecoin issuers froze roughly $3 billion of the stolen funds — Tether more than $1.5 billion, Circle about $800 million and Ripple around $200 million.
- Cantor Fitzgerald's Ramsey El-Assal told clients "we would be buyers on weakness," expecting Coinbase, Robinhood and Strategy shares to recover once the panic fades, and called the episode painful but "not 2022."
- TD Cowen's Lance Vitanza said the breach exposed weaknesses in Binance's own security rather than Bitcoin's underlying technology, framing the selloff as a chance to add Bitcoin and the stocks of public companies that hold it.
- Compass Point's Ed Engel and Michael Donovan said Binance has "more than enough liquidity to cover the hole," while flagging that reimbursing customers could strain stablecoin supply and that Coinbase and Hyperliquid could pick up business; they are watching the $75,000-to-$77,000 Bitcoin range as a key level.
- Moody's Ratings' Cristiano Ventricelli said the incident "underscores the heightened cybersecurity risks associated with hot wallets" and "illustrates the risk concentration inherent in large, centralized intermediaries," with the outcome hinging on ultimate losses, affected counterparties, asset recovery and whether confidence is lost.
Why it matters: The bullish case rests on containment: issuers froze about $3 billion of stolen funds and Binance has earmarked $6.34 billion for losses, while Moody's counters that hot-wallet and concentration risks are still live. El-Assal expects Coinbase, Robinhood and Strategy shares to recover once the panic fades, putting the recovery case on regulated proxies rather than the token.
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