Binance Hacker Sells $158.25 Million in Altcoins for 70,480 ETH, Hitting UNI, ENA, PEPE and LINK

The attacker behind the Binance breach has converted a batch of stolen altcoins into ether, adding selling pressure to several mid-cap tokens already under strain from a wider market sell-off.

On-chain analytics firm @lookonchain reported that the attacker swapped $UNI, $ENA, $PEPE, $LINK, $AAVE, $ONDO and $WLD for a total of 70,480 $ETH, worth about $158.25 million. Bitcoin.com reported the largest sales were 7.02 million $UNI for $39.63 million, 217.5 million $ENA for $33.93 million, 7.77 trillion $PEPE for $31.66 million and 2.57 million $LINK for $26.05 million. Smaller sales included $AAVE ($14.27 million), $ONDO ($6.62 million) and $WLD ($6.09 million), according to Lookonchain data.

Token Prices Under Pressure

The sales hit prices. According to a Substack analysis of the on-chain data, $ENA fell from $0.2095 before the hack to a low of $0.1658, roughly 21%, before recovering to around $0.185. Crypto.news reported that $UNI fell 3.99% to $6.73 on October 30, leaving it down 23.48% over the past month.

Bitcoin.com also noted that the stolen $ENA, $UNI, $PEPE and $AAVE positions represent 7% to 15% of Binance's reported holdings of each token, because the drained wallet was counted in its proof of reserves.

The attacker's remaining holdings appear limited. Lookonchain data cited by TechFlow showed other tokens including $FUN, $ZAMA, $ZRO and $RSR, each valued between $5 million and $9 million.

Stablecoin Freezes and the Wider Hack

Altcoins were a small part of the overall theft. CoinDesk reported that Binance estimated the total impact at about $6.3 billion, making it the largest crypto theft on record. About $3 billion of assets were frozen, including $2.3 billion in $USDT and $USDC.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company froze more than 1.567 billion $USDT, while Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said it froze more than $800 million in $USDC, according to Yahoo Finance. Reported freeze totals vary by source and on-chain count. Stablecoin Insider cited TRM Labs figures of about 1.773 billion $USDT and 825 million $USDC.

Tokens without a central issuer, such as $UNI, $ENA, $PEPE and $LINK, cannot be frozen in the same way. CoinDesk noted that attackers often swap freezable stablecoins for assets that lack centralized-issuer controls.

Attribution is still developing. According to The Crypto Times, TRM Labs linked the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored group, and Binance has said it will publish a full post-mortem and updated proof of reserves. Binance's co-CEO has said the exchange would cover all losses, per CoinDesk.

Sources:

Bitcoin.com News: Binance Hacker Dumps $158M in AltsCoinDesk: Binance loses over $6 billion in the largest crypto hack to dateYahoo Finance: Bitcoin, digital assets tumble as Binance reports $6.3 billion breach