The fact that Binance and many digital currency exchanges were attacked before is causing this field to face doubts about the level of safety.

"There is no system that guarantees 100% absolute security," billionaire Changpeng Zhao (CZ), former CEO and founder of Binance, told Yahoo Finance about Binance being attacked. "Therefore, when operating a platform, especially a digital currency platform, risks are always present."

CZ's comments took place in the context that Binance had just experienced the largest attack and theft of $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency history. In September, Bitget exchange reported a loss of 388 million USD. Last month, cold wallet intervention (non-Internet-connected wallet) Ledger through a Southeast Asian retailer also caused losses of more than 90 million USD.

Before that, many digital currency exchanges were also attacked. Last November, Upbit announced the theft of about $30 million in assets belonging to the Solana ecosystem. In August, BtcTurk (Türkiye) temporarily stopped deposits and withdrawals after discovering about 48 million USD in stolen assets. In July, BigONE (Singapore) lost 27 million USD due to a hot wallet vulnerability, while CoinDCX (India) lost about 44 million USD after hackers penetrated internal operating accounts. In February of the same year, Bybit also suffered one of the largest digital asset thefts in history when hackers stole about 1.5 billion USD.

Users doubt the safety level

According to experts, after the most recent boom period of 2024-2025, the digital currency market is going through a series of gloomy days when Bitcoin price lost nearly half of its value, from a peak of 126,000 USD to now 76,000 USD per coin. The "hit" on Binance is making more people suspicious, as the Fear & Greed Index - a tool to measure investor sentiment, reflecting whether the main emotion dominating the market is fear or greed - is currently hovering around the 35 point mark, which is in the Fear zone, thereby reflecting a deteriorating psychological context.

"This development is important, as it reflects a decline in optimism that had built up in the previous weeks and now shows a more consistent decline in confidence across the entire cryptocurrency sector," Forex, the long-standing US foreign exchange and contracts for difference trading platform, commented.

Also according to this site, the index is important because it reflects the willingness of cryptocurrency investors to accept risk. If confidence does not recover soon, the market will have difficulty attracting more cash flow and maintaining purchasing power. A part of investors may turn their attention to other asset channels. In addition, prolonged cautious sentiment may also cause the cryptocurrency market to continue to weaken compared to other asset types.

In fact, on social networks like Reddit or X, many people are also pessimistic, especially after Binance was hacked. Some even said they had "exited the market" because of concerns that similar incidents could happen in the future, especially when AI can carry out increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.

In addition to property damage, the Binance hack has the potential to have a broader impact on the cryptocurrency market, which is under pressure from high interest rates in the US and declining demand for ETFs. "The attack could further dampen risk sentiment, while causing investors to reassess the safety of assets stored on centralized exchanges," Tim Sun, senior researcher at HashKey Group, told Reuters.

Aneirin Flynn, CEO of cybersecurity technology company FailSafe, also had a similar assessment, saying that the problem is no longer simply the largest cryptocurrency theft to date. "This does damage confidence in the cryptocurrency industry that is attracting investment capital," Flynn told Bloomberg. "But institutions will not ignore repeated lapses in custody and security."

The Binance attack may make leaders of listed companies more cautious when applying technology related to cryptocurrency. Austin Campbell, a lecturer at New York University's School of Business, said that blockchain prioritizes transaction speed over asset protection, thereby creating conditions for hackers to quickly transfer stolen money to another address.

"This is the dark side of cryptocurrencies. People are trying to build fast go-karts, instead of resilient tanks," Campbell said.

Binance's efforts

Binance saw users withdraw billions of dollars when it reopened deposits and withdrawals on November 1. In recent days, the company has made efforts not to lose user trust by publicizing the incident early, cooperating with the FBI and security firms to quickly investigate, as well as trying to compensate damaged users as soon as possible.

Just two days after being attacked, Richard Teng, co-CEO of Binance, said the exchange had replenished 90% of the stolen assets and pledged to make up the missing 10%. According to Reuters, the money used to buy back the tokens comes from the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), the Futures Insurance Fund (FIF) and the company's own treasury.

Besides, Binance contributed to preventing the attack from turning into a widespread crisis of trust by contacting other partners to coordinate. Tether, Circle, Ripple and several other companies quickly froze or restricted access to about $3 billion in stolen assets. Coinbase blocked transfers to compromised wallets and directly supported Binance during incident response.

As noted by CNBC, user reaction when Binance was hacked contrasts with the panic surrounding the collapse of the FTX exchange in November 2022. On Reddit, the discussions even had a mixture of humor, faith in the exchange's financial resources, and questions about why such a massive attack could happen.

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise Asset Management, believes that cryptocurrency wallet attacks, even those with large losses, usually do not have a major impact on long-term price movements. "Historical data shows that these types of attacks rarely have a significant impact on future profits," Hougan told Reuters. "Investors often view them as 'isolated incidents'."

However, experts say that the Binance incident still raises concerns about the safety of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (CEX), especially in the eyes of institutional investors. "The incident exposes the risks faced when entrusting one's assets to these types of platforms," ​​Ari Redbord, head of global policy at security firm TRM Labs, told Business Today.

Andy Ward, a veteran cybersecurity expert in charge of Absolute Security's international business, estimates that large platforms like Binance will still become easy targets, especially when hackers are now equipped with increasingly advanced intrusion technology in the age of artificial intelligence.

"Cyber ​​attacks at a higher level than what just happened are just a matter of time, not a question of whether they will happen or not, especially as AI models become increasingly powerful in detecting security vulnerabilities," Ward shared with Bloomberg. "Cyber ​​threats are increasingly sophisticated and difficult to control. Large-scale attacks and more serious financial losses may be only a matter of time."

Some experts assess that the attack could reshape the cryptocurrency infrastructure market, in which competitive advantage no longer lies only in the number of users, transaction volume or assets under management, but also in the ability to protect assets against large-scale intrusions. "Cybersecurity investment capacity can become a competitive advantage among cryptocurrency businesses," Owen Lau, senior analyst at ClearStreet, told CNBC. "Large companies have more resources, which can give them an advantage over small businesses."

According to David Zervos, an advisor to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the lack of any "overarching legislative structure" surrounding the cryptocurrency sector causes the industry to "continue to run wild" in many ways. Therefore, he believes that it is time to promote laws on market structure, including the Digital Asset Market Transparency Act (Clarity Act) - a US bill to establish a legal framework for the cryptocurrency market, while also setting regulations on exchange operations and protecting customer assets. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives in July 2025, but still encountered obstacles in the Senate and was not passed in September due to disagreements over management content.

Bao Lam summary

• Users withdraw billions of USD when Binance reopens
• Binance: 'Recovered 90% of losses from the $6.3 billion hack'
• Urgently trace and recover 6.3 billion USD stolen from Binance
• Hackers 'tested 36 hours in advance, withdrew 6.3 billion USD from Binance wallet in 20 minutes'
• Binance's billion-dollar hack may have been caused by an engineer's laptop being compromised