⏱ 2 min read
Cantor, TD Cowen and Compass Point urged buying crypto-linked stocks, citing around $3 billion frozen and Binance liquidity.
Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald, TD Cowen and Compass Point told clients to buy bitcoin proxies after a record hack at Binance, according to the report, casting the selloff as an entry point for crypto-linked stocks such as Coinbase and Robinhood.
The notes argued that equity “proxies” offer crypto exposure without the custody risk the exploit exposed. Regulated, exchange-listed brokers and platforms do not require investors to hold tokens directly, so a breach of a centralized exchange’s hot wallets hits less squarely than it does token holders. Compass Point also said rivals including Coinbase and Hyperliquid could win business if Binance reimburses users, while warning that repayments could strain stablecoin supply.
Analysts frame the drop as a dip to buy
The report says the theft was the largest crypto hack to date and came as Bitcoin slid toward $77,000. Cantor’s Ramsey El-Assal pointed to the speed of response across the industry, citing the report’s tally that roughly $3 billion of the stolen funds were frozen by stablecoin issuers and others, including more than $1.5 billion by Tether, about $800 million by Circle and around $200 million by Ripple. “We would be buyers on weakness,” El-Assal wrote, adding that while the episode is painful, “this is not 2022.”
TD Cowen’s Lance Vitanza, according to the report, said the breach reflected Binance’s security rather than Bitcoin’s underlying technology, and framed the selloff as a chance to add to Bitcoin and to public companies that hold it. Compass Point’s Ed Engel and Michael Donovan said Binance has “more than enough liquidity to cover the hole” and flagged the $75,000 to $77,000 Bitcoin range as a level they are watching.
▼ 2.57%
Prices as of 2026-10-30 21:02 UTC. Source: CoinGecko.
Wallet risks and unknowns keep a caution flag up
Moody’s Ratings’ Cristiano Ventricelli struck a more cautious tone, saying the incident “underscores the heightened cybersecurity risks associated with hot wallets” and “illustrates the risk concentration inherent in large, centralized intermediaries.” He said the broader implications depend on the ultimate losses, which counterparties are affected, what is recovered, and whether there is wider disruption or loss of confidence.
The report says Binance has set aside $6.34 billion to cover losses and told users their assets are safe. The U.S. Secret Service and FBI have opened a probe, and the report cites firms including TRM and Chainalysis tying the hack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group. The test for both readings is what investigators and recovery efforts ultimately deliver—and whether customer reimbursements change where trading and stablecoin liquidity migrate.
Source: Decrypt.
This article was written with AI assistance and reviewed by an editor.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
🧠 HafidWatch Take
The concentration of roughly $2.5 billion in frozen assets among Tether, Circle, and Ripple highlights how a small group of stablecoins could significantly impact market liquidity. If recovery efforts fail to restore confidence in these key players, trading volumes and stablecoin usage might shift toward less centralized alternatives, potentially reshaping liquidity dynamics in the crypto ecosystem. This underscores that beyond the total loss figures, which remain uncertain, the distribution of frozen assets in major intermediaries could be a critical factor in how the market evolves post-incident.
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