Bitcoin drops below US$77,000 as Binance hack shakes crypto

Bitcoin and other digital assets experienced a sharp decline this week, plunging below US$77,000 for the first time in over a month. This downward trend intensified following the revelation of a massive hack at Binance, the world's largest digital-asset exchange. The cryptocurrency market reacted negatively, with Bitcoin falling as much as 3.1% to reach US$76,300.

Binance's native token (BNB) also took a hit, dropping around 5% to approximately US$700. The hacking incident resulted in the theft of over US$6 billion, making it the biggest crypto theft ever recorded, and further eroded confidence in the security of digital assets. The incident has also raised questions about Binance's security measures, given the exchange's massive operations and the size of its platform, which holds more than US$135 billion in assets.

Market analysts noted that the broader crypto market had already been experiencing a bearish trend, which exacerbated the rapid sell-off. Jeff Ko, chief analyst at ViaBTC, suggested that Binance could absorb the losses, but the repeated security breaches could potentially discourage new entrants to the crypto market. Noelle Acheson, a crypto analyst, pointed out that while every security breach strengthens security measures, the recent series of incidents has raised significant concerns about the safety of both self-custody and exchange custody solutions.