What could be the consequences of widespread hacks of exchanges, protocols, ...

[DrBeer]

Yesterday, Binance, the largest crypto exchange, was hacked - I'm sure you're all already aware of that. Against that backdrop, the news about the ByBit hack went almost unnoticed. The estimated losses are 6 billion and 1 billion dollars. But that's yesterday's news. Over the past month, we've seen a huge number of hacks specifically related to the crypto market - wallets compromised, data leaks, and so on.
As reported regarding Binance, the cause was the compromise of one devops work laptop. One laptop, one devops ... What a mess...

Actually, I have a few key questions:
1. Don't you feel that security in the crypto world is already heading toward zero, even without a quantum hack? The reason is a completely careless attitude toward security - from protocols to infrastructure, from hiring staff to "digital hygiene" rules in the workplace!
2. And the most important question - where could this lead?
I can imagine one very bad scenario: a slide toward purely centralized cryptocurrencies, something like stablecoins or CBDCs, since only they generally allow for stolen funds to be frozen and recovered, and a total loss of trust in any decentralized cryptocurrencies and protocols, causing the real crypto world to "hit rock bottom" and the general public to lose interest in "true" cryptocurrencies.

What do you think?

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

1. Don't you feel that security in the crypto world is already heading toward zero, even without a quantum hack?

No, because not every user that are into cryptocurrency were affected, of recent, only those that are using centralized exchange of which it is expected of us to know the risk that they are prone to being hacked, and some few users of hardware wallet, yet we cannot because of this concluded that every hardware wallet user got affected, even though we can't prevent or predict anything that may happen in the nearest future concerning the unaffected ones.

2. And the most important question - where could this lead?

Let's not act as if we are just new in the system because this is not the first time there will be crypto-related hacks, while another thing to always consider is that scam is not only done in crypto, we also have a number of Fiat related heist that claim huge amount of money over the time in history, anyone that has his coins or asset should guide it diligently and avoid anything that could place more risk on them.

I will suggest this should be on Bitcoin discussion board, unless it still fits perfectly here.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

https://x.com/binance/status/2116089661408108712 the compromised laptop was just their initial investigation, from that post they dropped they seem to have uncovered more security breach from their own end, I understand that they won't go into details on that because they are still carrying out further investigations.

Question 1. I think I have read about a security breach from a platform and it happened that an admin to their discord account was careless with his account, I think this exchange has to set a standard from their employees, because the effect of one worker being careless can be grievous, I feel the security of many crypto platforms are weaker than what many think, and they make it seem like they need to be attacked before they can uncover their own security breach.

Question 2. This will lead to exchange filtering, only exchanges willing to go on with the security threats and exchanges who can cover stolen funds will survive, those who can't will wrap up. It's a worrisome thing for the crypto world nevertheless we need to accept it and prepare for it.

[davis196]

1. Don't you feel that security in the crypto world is already heading toward zero, even without a quantum hack? The reason is a completely careless attitude toward security - from protocols to infrastructure, from hiring staff to "digital hygiene" rules in the workplace!
2. And the most important question - where could this lead?
I can imagine one very bad scenario: a slide toward purely centralized cryptocurrencies, something like stablecoins or CBDCs, since only they generally allow for stolen funds to be frozen and recovered, and a total loss of trust in any decentralized cryptocurrencies and protocols, causing the real crypto world to "hit rock bottom" and the general public to lose interest in "true" cryptocurrencies.

Crypto exchanges were hacked in the past and they will be hacked in the future. That doesn't mean that the overall security in the crypto world is going down to zero. This is a never ending battle between centralized crypto services and the hackers. If you don't trust centralized crypto exchanges, there's plenty of alternatives.
The stablecoins and the CBDCs aren't volatile, which means they aren't attractive to the speculative traders and investors. Only Bitcoin and some of the altcoins are attractive to the speculative day traders and long term investors. I can't imagine a crypto exchange, where only stablecons and CBDCs are being traded.

[stadus]

This is alarming already, I know some people have panicked but looking at the price of bitcoin it only dropped a little, which is just normal for bitcoin.

What happened is that it was not the Bitcoin system that was compromised, the network is fine, and all these hacks should serve as a learning experience for exchanges to improve their security so it won't happen again. Good thing is that despite the hack, Binance still promised to compensate the losses through their SAFU fund, and it's not the first time they have been hacked, so it's not a big surprise.

We will eventually move on from this, but they now know what the threat is, they really have to invest more in security as the next attack could be worse.

[DrBeer]

1. Don't you feel that security in the crypto world is already heading toward zero, even without a quantum hack?

No, because not every user that are into cryptocurrency were affected, of recent, only those that are using centralized exchange of which it is expected of us to know the risk that they are prone to being hacked, and some few users of hardware wallet, yet we cannot because of this concluded that every hardware wallet user got affected, even though we can't prevent or predict anything that may happen in the nearest future concerning the unaffected ones.

2. And the most important question - where could this lead?

Let's not act as if we are just new in the system because this is not the first time there will be crypto-related hacks, while another thing to always consider is that scam is not only done in crypto, we also have a number of Fiat related heist that claim huge amount of money over the time in history, anyone that has his coins or asset should guide it diligently and avoid anything that could place more risk on them.

I will suggest this should be on Bitcoin discussion board, unless it still fits perfectly here.

1. It's very easy to refute your assumption:
October 2026 - DeFi protocol **Aave**
Yesterday - Polymarket (at least it's called decentralized)
April 2026 - Drift Protocol
April 2026 - Kelp DAO
September 2026 - Liquid Network
August 2026 - Tectonic on the Cronos network
April 2026 - Rhea Finance
....

2. They're not newcomers, but I can't recall such a massive wave of hacks. I understand that hackers now have more effective tools (AI), but... I'm alarmed by the unacceptable level of security - specifically, what they're passing off as security! Take the protocols listed above and check - have they been audited or not? THEY HAVE!
When it comes to infrastructure breaches, in most cases they occurred through the compromise of company employees' workstations - which points to a very low level of security!

3. No, this isn't about Bitcoin,  it's about all cryptocurrencies.

P.S. I know what I'm talking about - I have 30 years of experience in IT. I know what distributed infrastructures are, especially on the scale of large companies, as well as cloud solutions, security policies, and so on....

[Hewlet]

1. Don't you feel that security in the crypto world is already heading toward zero, even without a quantum hack?

No, because not every user that are into cryptocurrency were affected, of recent, only those that are using centralized exchange of which it is expected of us to know the risk that they are prone to being hacked, and some few users of hardware wallet, yet we cannot because of this concluded that every hardware wallet user got affected.

Even if there are only a few people that are affected, the number is getting outrageous and literally all the major exchanges have been badly hit. it is not just about those whose funds have been stolen alone. what happens to those that have been currently liquidated as a result of this hack?

As much as we have always advocated for users not to leave their asset in an exchange, security in the crypto space as it stands is nothing to write home about. if more of thus attack continues in the coming days, some of the things we look to be mere impossible might end up becoming a possibility. lets up this serves as a wake up call for the tightening of security where needed.

[DrBeer]

bc1qky8zv93uvpl0mdmxcxsfkpgq54x6m3hcr22nhj the compromised laptop was just their initial investigation, from that post they dropped they seem to have uncovered more security breach from their own end, I understand that they won't go into details on that because they are still carrying out further investigations.

Question 1. I think I have read about a security breach from a platform and it happened that an admin to their discord account was careless with his account, I think this exchange has to set a standard from their employees, because the effect of one worker being careless can be grievous, I feel the security of many crypto platforms are weaker than what many think, and they make it seem like they need to be attacked before they can uncover their own security breach.

Question 2. This will lead to exchange filtering, only exchanges willing to go on with the security threats and exchanges who can cover stolen funds will survive, those who can't will wrap up. It's a worrisome thing for the crypto world nevertheless we need to accept it and prepare for it.

The reason I created this thread is that data on incidents from 2026 has been accumulating, and in most cases, these aren't "zero-day vulnerabilities" but rather human carelessness, irresponsibility, and violations of all security standards. The following cases particularly struck me:

- Protocol hacks caused by bugs in smart contracts, even though they had been audited by renowned security firms!

- Trivial phishing attacks used to compromise company employees' workstations. This points to a very low level of information security within the departments.

And as for exchanges - exchanges won't be able to constantly compensate for multibillion-dollar losses...

[BlackHatCoiner]

1. Don't you feel that security in the crypto world is already heading toward zero, even without a quantum hack?

You just have to be a little bit more paranoid than before, but I don't think the main principles have changed. You shouldn't be storing crypto on exchanges in the first place. We've literally said this a thousand times in this board.

2. And the most important question - where could this lead?

It's a transitioning period where a lot of exploits are happening because the AI is scanning code like Speedy Gonzales, while not enough reviewing and fixing is done respectively on the other side. It can't last forever.

[Bitcoin.com97]

It's really alarming this period, just few days we were talking about the casino that was hacked, now this one ,what is really happening, is that the security system is not active, although I know this things has been happening before now ,but the rate at which is occurring is just heart breaking ,the hackers are not joking at all, and there target are on the major exchange and it's working for them ,at this point I won't advice anyone to keep their funds in exchange with the way things are going now . crypto space is not longer safe with the look of things .

[Spaceman1000$]

For a hack of this magnitude, there is always an internal saboteur, however I also believe that this exchange companies are capable of doing the unthinkable, They can actually be the one to take on this heist but blame it on a compromised laptop, how convenient it is for them to give us such an excuse, $6 billion is no child's play. The funny part is that this situation keeps on happening over and over again and nobody takes a fall for it, and for me I feel it's part of the reason why those of them that are doing it continue to be emboldened.

Whoever really wants to hold a crypto asset, should not forget to always decentralize, because you see this exchange companies, we will keep on hearing news like this because they are not to be trusted.

[obuoma]

https://x.com/binance/status/2116089661408108712 the compromised laptop was just their initial investigation, from that post they dropped they seem to have uncovered more security breach from their own end, I understand that they won't go into details on that because they are still carrying out further investigations.

They are not sharing much details but that is completely understood because doing that will cause more harm to them. The good thing is that they have accepted to cover the loss and are making effort to freeze some of those money. According to that post in X, they have frozen about $3 billion thus far which is good but the remaining money is still huge.

Question 2. This will lead to exchange filtering, only exchanges willing to go on with the security threats and exchanges who can cover stolen funds will survive, those who can't will wrap up. It's a worrisome thing for the crypto world nevertheless we need to accept it and prepare for it.

This is correct, only exchanges that can cover stolen funds can be trusted but as individuals, we should also try not to keep too much money in exchanges except the money we want to only use for trading or other immediate needs.

[Ziskinberg]

I can imagine one very bad scenario: a slide toward purely centralized cryptocurrencies, something like stablecoins or CBDCs, since only they generally allow for stolen funds to be frozen and recovered, and a total loss of trust in any decentralized cryptocurrencies and protocols, causing the real crypto world to "hit rock bottom" and the general public to lose interest in "true" cryptocurrencies.

You have a good point, however, I still believe that bitcoin will survive as its price has not even dropped that much now. remember that the hack happened due to a security issue with the exchange and it has nothing to do with the Bitcoin system, yes if bitcoin is stolen it cannot be frozen but with the technology we have now like Chainalysis and other tracking tools, those who steal bitcoin are still likely to get caught if an investigation takes place as they will eventually need to spend it, so the funds will move and that's where the experts will focus their investigation.

Honestly, even with what is happening now, or even if things get worse in the future, I would never switch to a centralized system, because with those stablecoins, only the USA will get richer, since USD is very dominant in the stablecoin market, we are just going back to centralization and Satoshi's vision will never be fulfilled.

My suggestion is that regulators should limit the trading volume of exchanges so the risk can be minimized, with more players in the space, trading volumes will be distributed and risks will be reduced, instead of having one major exchange holding a huge volume while others are just getting a small share.

[YOSHIE]

Yesterday
What do you think?

Yes, when crypto exchanges experience the consequences of problems caused by hackers on a massive and phenomenal scale to crypto exchanges, of course and it is quite certain that this happens will certainly trigger detrimental effects on the ecosystem as a whole felt by crypto users.

For this reason, when this situation occurs, market confidence will collapse and the government will also think seriously about tightening regulations in the future.
Thus, the worst thing is bankruptcy of exchange services, loss of funds and financial losses, perhaps many other reasons when they feel the effects of hacking.

[B-BossMan]

It's really alarming this period, just few days we were talking about the casino that was hacked, now this one ,what is really happening, is that the security system is not active, although I know this things has been happening before now ,but the rate at which is occurring is just heart breaking ,the hackers are not joking at all, and there target are on the major exchange and it's working for them ,at this point I won't advice anyone to keep their funds in exchange with the way things are going now . crypto space is not longer safe with the look of things .

I was totally surprised on how this thing happened to the largest exchange, if I may say, this is the biggest hacked on exchanges I have ever experienced, imagine shutting down every USDT activities in the Binance over hours ago, seriously this is so disturbing and alarming this time around, alits of people that made or placed withdrawal yesterday were rejected today, and I noticed this since in the morning yesterday as withdrawal took over one hour before receiving it, I was even doubting may be I made or withdraw to a wrong address, well I believe Binance management would definitely work on this to fix everything as usual. It seems to me that,  almost every year things like this normally happens to an exchanges, but this particular one is something else.

[Mrbluntzy]

My fear about this whole hack problem is that it will make some people, especially newbies to lose interest in Bitcoin and crypto for now, because right now, some of them will assume that no place is safe. The Coldcard vulnerability already raised some reaction on based on the comments I was seeing, some investors said it's better they just sell their crypto and keep the money in Fiat. Some people are already scared of losing their money to this hacks. However, as someone has mentioned, which I agree with what he said, this will not continue for ever, all exchanges and wallet providers will definitely improve their security using the tools that is a trend now.

[Silverstonez]

I was quite surprised by the Binance exchange hack.  An exchange as large and well established as binance that has been around for years should have a strong security measure in place to prevent such attacks. However,   this is another lesson to all of those who still believe that centralized exchanges is the best option for them to keep their coins. There have also been many cases of wallet compromised,  but it doesn’t seem to change the fact that self custody remains the best way to maintain control over our crypto assets.

[WillyAp]

We need to differ here that hack is more about USDT.
So USDT (Tether) and USDC (Circle) have frozen about a third

https://www.bitrue.com/blog/tether-freezes-1-5b-usdt-binance-hack-bnb

Crypto people don't have much on Binance, Traders on the other hand use Binance differently.
USDT and USDC show how popular a free dollar could be.   

[Accardo]

For a hack of this magnitude, there is always an internal saboteur, however I also believe that this exchange companies are capable of doing the unthinkable, They can actually be the one to take on this heist but blame it on a compromised laptop, how convenient it is for them to give us such an excuse, $6 billion is no child's play. The funny part is that this situation keeps on happening over and over again and nobody takes a fall for it, and for me I feel it's part of the reason why those of them that are doing it continue to be emboldened.

A good number of crypto enthusiasts admit to this insider idea, one comment struck everybody about withdrawal limit, withdrawals above 50k on Binance, he said, puts an average user on security check, but these hackers were able to siphon billions of dollars in a single withdrawal. I think they were able to bypass this limitation after compromising the EIP - 7702 that guaranteed this attack. Yet on a closer observation, the game sounds familiar.

[hmbdofficial]

Actually, I have a few key questions:
1. Don't you feel that security in the crypto world is already heading toward zero, even without a quantum hack? The reason is a completely careless attitude toward security - from protocols to infrastructure, from hiring staff to "digital hygiene" rules in the workplace!

Not really because all of the hack were not directly related to bitcoin it self. This was a centralised exchange compromised and it stated that there were no private key data leak. and we all know what could happen if our crypto asset are held on a centralised exchange,  the quantum threat is to attack private key so there are two different things I’m still worried about about that though.

2. And the most important question - where could this lead?

If should lead us all to reducing the use of centralised exchange and start holding out bitcoin on a decentralised network.