Crypto’s biggest hack exposes a bigger problem. Binance’s $6.3 billion breach dwarfs previous thefts, revealing how crypto’s financial footprint has outgrown its institutional safeguards.

Binance survived. Could the next exchange? Emergency reserves, asset freezes and corporate funds helped contain the damage, but crypto still lacks standardized mechanisms to absorb losses and restore liquidity.

Regulators are preparing for crypto contagion. South Korea is testing how an exchange collapse could threaten traditional banks, exposing the next challenge: preventing a crypto liquidity crisis from becoming a broader financial one.

The crypto sector has had its fair share of crimes, scandals, thefts and embarrassments.

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And the theft of approximately $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance last Thursday (Oct. 29) certainly ranks up there among the “worst days in crypto history.” But while the billions stolen represent the largest cryptocurrency hack in history, what institutional investors will remember more than any alleged state-sanctioned attack is what the experience of getting their money back looks like.

After all, look no further for proof than FTX, Synapse, or countless other exchange failures for the fact that what matters most for crypto hacks is what happens when customers try to get their money back after it happens.

By Monday (Nov. 3 billion that was stolen.

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