Tom Lee Calls Binance Hack Constructive for Ethereum

BitMine Immersion Chairman Tom Lee called the $6.3 billion Binance hack constructive for Ethereum. After the incident, Ether fell by about 4%, whereas after the Bybit hack in February 2025, it lost 8% on the first day and 20% over the following week. Lee described this reaction as relatively calm and saw it as evidence that the industry can withstand a blow of this magnitude.

He highlighted four reasons: Binance covered the losses from its own balance, Tether and Circle froze the stolen stablecoins, no decentralized finance protocol was affected, and investigators quickly pointed to North Korea.

BitMine purchased an additional 8,573 ETH for approximately $19.6 million. The reserve increased to 6,060,506 ETH, roughly $13.7 billion – this is 4.9% of the Ether supply. According to Lee, this makes him the most Ether-involved executive in the world. The company is nearing the 5% limit: about 49,500 ETH remain, approximately six weeks at the current pace.

What worries the market

October was the worst month for U.S. exchange-traded funds on Ether: outflows amounted to $1.61 billion. Ether lost 19% from the local peak, Bitcoin – 11%. For almost a year, the market had a major corporate ETH buyer insensitive to price; now it is nearly exhausted.

Bitcoin is trading around $77.3k with a loss of 0.6%, Ether – around $2,280. Funds on Bitcoin withdrew $399 million on Monday, more than $1 billion over two sessions. Strategy bought 811 BTC for $65.5 million at an average of $80,846, Strive – 124 BTC for about $10 million.