Binance hack sparks heavy outflows as futures traders stay: Santiment

Binance’s $6.34 billion hack has driven heavy cryptocurrency withdrawals and some of Bitcoin’s most negative social sentiment on record, while futures traders have maintained billions of dollars in positions, according to Santiment. Summary Bitcoin sentiment fell to 0.37 positive comments per negative comment following the Oct. 29 breach. Binance-associated wallets recorded roughly 28,316 BTC in net outflows through Nov. 5. Bitcoin and Ethereum futures open interest remained near $8.97 billion and $8.03 billion, respectively. ENA withdrawal activity reached 169 addresses in one hour, compared with the usual 20–25. Santiment’s Nov. 6 report examined exchange flows, social commentary and derivatives activity following the theft, finding that the reaction varied across spot holdings and leveraged positions. While assets left exchange wallets and bearish commentary dominated discussions, the firm described the reduction in Binance futures positions as relatively orderly, given the size of the security failure. Bitcoin withdrawals continue after Binance hack Through Nov. 5, Santiment recorded approximately 28,316 BTC in net outflows from Binance-associated wallets since the attack. Withdrawals had initially been suspended before reopening in stages from Nov. 1. Across all exchanges tracked by the firm, Bitcoin balances fell by 38,631 BTC, or 2.92%, between Oct. 25 and Nov. 5. Because the decline started four days before the breach, Santiment cautioned against attributing the entire movement to Binance. You might also like: Binance hack triggers smaller DeFi run than $292M Kelp exploit: Sentora Its exchange-flow readings showed 22,317 BTC and approximately 324,640 ETH in net outflows on Oct. 29. Those figures cover tracked exchange activity, including customer withdrawals and institutional transfers, and do not represent a tally of stolen assets. USDT movements continued after the initial attack. On Ethereum, Santiment recorded roughly 1.71 billion USDT in net exchange outflows on Oct. 29, followed by a larger 3.94 billion reading on Nov. 2. The later reading followed the start of Binance’s withdrawal reopening. Santiment said the figures did not establish that all the stablecoins were stolen or withdrawn from Binance. Bitcoin fear deepens while futures positions remain In social discussions, Bitcoin’s positive-to-negative commentary ratio dropped to 0.37 during Oct. 29–30, according to the report. Negative comments therefore outnumbered positive ones by approximately 2.7 to one. Binance occupied all six positions on Santiment’s top trending cryptocurrency stories list on Oct. 29, overtaking discussions about the Federal Reserve, Strategy and the approaching U.S. midterm elections. Despite that concentration of fear, Binance’s Bitcoin futures open interest stood near $8.97 billion by Nov. 5, while Ethereum’s remained around $8.03 billion. Open interest measures outstanding futures contracts that have not been closed. BNB futures open interest reached approximately $427 million, with the token trading near $692 at the report’s observation point. Santiment found that Bitcoin funding rates remained predominantly positive and generally within familiar ranges.