Bitcoin Falls Below $79,000 as Binance Probes Security Reports

Bitcoin fell below $79,000 Thursday as Binance co-founder Yi He said the exchange was reviewing reports of a possible security issue, while Coinbase senior director Conor Grogan estimated Binance-linked outflows at up to $5.8 billion.

Bitcoin's 24-hour low was $78,177.37 after 4 p.m. ET, following a high of $81,890 around midday ET. Bitcoin was $78,715 at 7:11 p.m. ET (23:11 UTC) Oct. 29.

Separately, Blockaid is investigating $3.3 billion in suspicious outflows from Binance hot wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino put the amount frozen by Tether at more than $1.567 billion in USDT. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said Circle froze about $823 million in USDC.

He said Binance's security teams were reviewing the reports and that the exchange would post updates through official channels after verifying information. Binance had not confirmed a breach, and estimates continued to change.

Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange. The $5.8 billion figure describes estimated outflows, not a confirmed loss.