Bitcoin Holds Up After $6.3B Binance Hack, Says Strive CEO

Bitcoin has held up better than expected following the reported $6.3 billion Binance hack, according to Strive CEO Matt Cole, who said the breach has not changed his long-term investment thesis. Speaking on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction, Cole compared the attack on Binance’s wallets to a bank robbery rather than a failure of Bitcoin’s underlying network.

Bitcoin traded near $77,400 at 4 p.m. Saturday, approximately 4% below its level shortly before the attack began Thursday, according to CoinGecko. Strive, a publicly traded company that holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet, reported owning 43,000 BTC as of Oct. 23. Cole said he retains conviction that the incident will not alter Bitcoin’s investment case over a reasonable time frame.

According to Glassnode, Thursday’s Binance breach was the largest cryptocurrency hack on record, affecting around $6.3 billion—more than the combined losses from the next nine largest hacks. That figure exceeds the $1.5 billion Bybit exploit from February 2025. A Bitfinex market report said Bitcoin fell roughly 5%, from nearly $100,000 to around $95,000, following the Bybit incident, while Anchorage Digital data cited by CNBC put the average decline during the first 24 hours after previous exchange exploits at 8.3%.

Cole cautioned that it is too early to identify a market bottom, describing a possible “early spring” recovery that could last another six to nine months, with prices rising gradually rather than surging to new highs. Paul Chapman, financial crime director at Wirex, stressed that Bitcoin itself was not hacked: the incident targeted one company’s systems rather than the decentralized network. The distinction highlights the security risks surrounding exchanges and custodial infrastructure even when the underlying blockchain remains operational.