Source publication time: November 5, 2026, at 04:08:56 UTC+8. Market observations below refer to Wednesday, November 4, unless otherwise noted.
Price recovery outpaced growth in open interest
Bitcoin recovered its losses following the Binance hack and moved toward $81,000, according to The Block’s report. By Wednesday afternoon, BTC was up 3.5% at $80,500, while Ethereum gained nearly 6% to $2,433. Solana and XRP each rose about 2.5% on the day.
The rebound followed Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections, in which Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress. Nexo analysts said futures initially fell as much as 2.5% during early vote counts before recovering fully. They interpreted that reversal as investors treating the outcome as greater clarity rather than a change to the growth outlook.
Nexo’s derivatives figures suggested position adjustment rather than a broad increase in leverage:
- Crypto futures volume increased 27%, while open interest rose just 3%.
- Bitcoin open interest grew more slowly than its price.
- Roughly $469 million in leveraged positions were flushed out.
The supplied report did not specify the measurement window for those derivatives figures. Nexo also said market orders shifted from a seller bias the previous day to slight net buying, while the most actively traded Bitcoin options were predominantly calls. These were positioning observations, not confirmation of a sustained price trend.
Crypto equities rose, but gains were not uniform
Strategy and Coinbase each gained about 6%. Strategy’s variable-rate perpetual preferred stock, STRC, reached $100 for the first time since May. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said Wednesday that “the case for holding Bitcoin crosses party lines.”
Block Inc. rose 15% following its earnings report, and bitcoin treasury firm Strive gained roughly 12%. The Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin, however, fell 17%.
What the hack comparison does—and does not—show
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan attributed the relatively muted market response to the Binance breach to the crypto industry’s growing maturity and improved security infrastructure.
In his weekly memo, Hougan examined the 10 largest crypto-related hacks. Bitcoin finished higher over the following 30 days in five cases and lower in five. That comparison showed no consistent relationship between major security incidents and subsequent Bitcoin performance; it did not establish a forecast for this recovery.
Hougan said Bitcoin’s roughly 4% decline following the breach was broadly in line with other risk assets. He also distinguished a compromise of Binance from a compromise of the Bitcoin network: the stolen crypto had been held in online hot wallets at the exchange.
He pointed to institutional custodians, cold storage and spot Bitcoin ETFs as more secure custody alternatives. For ETFs, he highlighted offline storage of underlying assets, multiple withdrawal approvals and withdrawal restrictions.
Conditions analysts were watching into November
Matt Mena, crypto research strategist at 21Shares, also described the market’s resilience as encouraging. In a Tuesday report, he characterized the incident as the largest hack in crypto history but said the drawdown was much smaller than in past crises. He noted that protocols continued operating, banks, payment networks and asset managers continued developing onchain products, and regulators continued writing rules.
Mena identified four areas to monitor:
- Whether Bitcoin held $76,000–$78,000 and sustained its recovery above the $80,000–$82,000 range.
- Binance’s progress in completing withdrawals and demonstrating its reserves.
- Credit spreads, oil prices and long-end Treasury yields.
- Whether ETF inflows returned.
These were conditions to watch in the dated report, not evidence that reserve concerns had been resolved or ETF inflows had resumed.