Bitcoin edges up 0.9% to about $77,700 as Binance hack news weighs on sentiment

The market today

Bitcoin traded at about $77,700, up 0.9% in 24 hours. It is still down 3.9% over seven days. Ethereum gained 1.3% to about $2,267 and is down 4.1% on the week.

The total crypto market is worth about $2.63 trillion, up 0.6% on the day. Bitcoin makes up 59.3% of that.

Mood is cautious but slightly better. The Fear & Greed Index read 34 (Fear), up from 30 yesterday. Breadth was positive: 61 of the top 100 coins rose and 39 fell. Among the biggest coins, BNB, XRP, SOL and DOGE were roughly flat to slightly lower.

Biggest movers

Among the top 200 coins, Lighter (LIT) led with a 14.9% rise to $3.16, although it is still lower on the week. LayerZero (ZRO) gained 10.3% to $1.87 and Stacks (STX) rose 9.3% to $0.328. Both are at their highest price this week. Morpho (MORPHO) added 9.2% to $2.32.

On the downside, Akedo (AKE) fell 19.2% to $0.00927. It has lost almost 70% in seven days and is at a 30-day low. THORChain (RUNE) dropped 6.1% to $0.623.

TRON (TRX), a top-10 coin, fell 5.6% to $0.308. Trading volume ran at 5.7 times its 30-day average, so the drop came with heavy activity.

By sector, Real World Assets led (+1.1%). Zero Knowledge coins were weakest (-2.3%).

What drove it

The main story is the Binance hack. Reports describe a theft of more than $6 billion, and the FBI has said North Korea was involved. It has asked the DeFi community to block addresses tied to Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. Binance says it has replaced about 90% of the stolen assets and is aiming to restore withdrawals on Sunday.

A Strive executive said Bitcoin held up better than expected after the breach. That fits today's small gain, though the weekly loss shows nerves remain.

Most of the large gainers moved on their own rather than with Bitcoin. Many of them are at weekly highs, which points to coin-specific buying. The data does not show a single cause.