Binance Reopened. The Funds Kept Leaving.

Bitcoin made a round trip this week and finished lower.

It traded near $77,800 early Monday. It dipped to about $75,700 as election results came in, then reached about $80,200 by Thursday morning. Thursday's chip selloff took it back to about $76,000, where it held overnight into Friday.

The setup changed under that round trip. Binance reopened, and customers took money out. Bitcoin funds lost $430 million on Thursday, and the coin held steady overnight while Asian stocks fell. Miners and treasury companies moved toward selling. Washington flipped, and crypto's bill stalled.

Here are the six forces that drove crypto this week.

Binance Reopened, and Money Walked Out

Withdrawals resumed Sunday. Customers pulled $10.97 billion in the next 46 hours, data from co-CEO Richard Teng show. Net outflows were $5.28 billion. For the first nine and a half hours, Binance put the net exit at 2.1% of its $171 billion in customer assets.

The proof came early and covered less. Binance's reserve snapshot covers 10 tokens and is dated Oct. 31, before the exchange reopened. It misses the billions pulled since.

Binance now traces the theft to June, when a wallet engineer downloaded a tampered installer for an AI coding tool. It says 98% of affected tokens are replenished. About $2.85 billion is frozen or intercepted.

A Count It Chose Itself

The exits looked orderly by Binance's own measure, and every figure so far is its own. The one check customers can run describes a date the market has already left. Until a newer proof lands, withdrawals are the only vote outsiders can see.

The Anchor Fund Led the Exit

U.S. spot bitcoin funds lost a net $398.6 million Monday. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust alone lost $405.3 million, more than the whole category. It was the largest outflow for IBIT (IBIT) since June.

Tuesday brought more outflows. Wednesday's $74.6 million inflow ended a three-day run of exits. Even then IBIT lost $201 million. Fidelity's Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) took in $237 million that day.

Thursday took out $430 million. FBTC swung to a $200 million outflow, and IBIT lost $105 million, its fifth straight day out. That is more than $750 million of net outflows from Monday through Thursday.

Ether funds lost about $140 million Monday, a sixth straight day, and about $100 million Thursday.

The Biggest Buyer Turned Seller

IBIT carried October's fund bid while other funds sold. This week it led the selling. Bitcoin still ended only about 2% below Monday morning's level, so buyers outside the funds took the other side. Their staying power is the open question.

The Election Split the Miners

Democrats won both chambers of Congress Tuesday. Bitcoin dipped to about $75,700 as results came in. On Wednesday it rose about 3.6% to near $80,100, and ether gained about 6.4%.

Crypto's bill lost ground. The Clarity Act failed a procedural Senate vote in September. TD Cowen said before the vote it would not expect passage within two years under Democratic control. Stifel called it "off the table" for the lame-duck session. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is expected to chair Senate Banking in January, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The miners took the sharper hit. Gov. Greg Abbott conceded the Texas governor's race to Democrat Gina Hinojosa. She campaigned on pausing data-center approvals. Bernstein cut price targets on seven miners by 35% to 54%.

Hut 8 (HUT) fell about 23% and Cipher (CIFR) about 20%. CleanSpark (CLSK) and Galaxy (GLXY) each fell about 17%. Riot (RIOT) rose about 10% on a $28 billion, 15-year lease of its Texas campus to an AI lab.

Signed Beats Planned

Crypto's path in Washington now runs through agencies and courts, not Congress. For miners, a signed lease held its value. Plans that still need Texas approvals did not.

Bitcoin Fell With the Chips

Thursday's selloff hit AI's builders hardest. The Nasdaq fell about 5.5%, and the semiconductor index lost about 12%. AMD (AMD) and Micron (MU) each fell about 17%.

Bitcoin fell about 5.6% to near $76,000, erasing Wednesday's gain. Coinbase (COIN), Robinhood (HOOD) and Strategy (MSTR) each lost about 9% to 10%.

Rates did not drive it. One-year inflation swaps fell to about 2.1% as oil slid. Kalshi's December hike contract slid from about 80 cents to about 66 Thursday afternoon. It tracked stocks more than data. The 10-year yield sat near 4.84% Friday morning. Gold had reached about $4,140 by early Thursday as the dollar fell.

Friday's payrolls rose 165,000, far above forecasts near 60,000. Unemployment fell to 4.1%.

Easier Rates, No Help

Lower yields and a softer hike bet usually help an asset that pays no interest. This week bitcoin traded with chip stocks instead. Gold took the haven role.

Balance Sheets Turned Into Sellers

Miners are leaving bitcoin. Keel Infrastructure (KEEL), formerly Bitfarms, sold its entire bitcoin treasury in the third quarter. With newly mined coins, its sales came to about $192 million. It will now sell its Quebec output each day.

Core Scientific (CORZ) expects to exit mining by year-end. IREN (IREN) said mining revenue fell 58% to $28 million. Its AI cloud revenue nearly tripled to $200 million. Riot said it sold 20,264 bitcoin this year.

Strategy bought 811 bitcoin for $65.5 million. It spent $208.2 million buying back its STRC preferred. Its $75,451 average cost sits less than 1% under Friday morning's price.

Trump Media's note collateral moved to Crypto.com hours after a record-low close. Wallets tied to the notes sent about 4,259 bitcoin. A filing says noteholders can demand up to about $1 billion in cash on Nov. 30. Trump Media (DJT) may have to sell bitcoin if other funding falls short. A transfer is not a sale.

Fewer Holders Who Won't Sell

Balance sheets were meant to be the patient bid. This week a miner became a daily seller. Strategy spent about three times as much on its own paper as on coins. One holder moved its collateral before a cash date.

Who Can Stop a Transaction

The stolen coins kept moving. The attacker moved all 233.46 million stolen XRP, about $290 million, into new wallets late Sunday. No sale was seen. The 18,270 stolen bitcoin had not moved as of Sunday.

Recoveries ran through small groups with override power. On Oct. 30, Arbitrum's Security Council voted nine of 12 to move about $30 million of stolen funds. It did so without the thief's key. On Monday, SEC staff said a party with unilateral power to "reverse transactions" may count as central control.

Issuers hold that power too. Circle (CRCL), which can freeze USDC, said average USDC in circulation grew 8% to $73.3 billion. Revenue rose 17%. Without a one-time $182 million token presale, it fell about 8%. Binance agreed to invest $100 million in Circle.

The agencies kept moving. SEC staff called Canton Coin a "digital commodity." A group backed by Cboe (CBOE) and Citadel Securities sued the CFTC over single-stock perpetual futures. A judge let them keep trading but found the group "likely to succeed."

Safety Has a Hand on It

Freezes and overrides protected users this week. They also put control in fewer hands, and SEC staff flagged that as a sign of central control. That trade-off now sits at the center of crypto's rulebook.