Morning Minute: Tom Lee Calls the Binance Hack Bullish for Ethereum

By Tyler Warner

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our daily news show 'FOMO HOUR' covering all of the top stories and market action.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors fall further as outflows continue; BTC at $77.3k
• BTC ETFs see another $400M in outflows, now $1B+ since Binance hack
• Kim Jong Un’s sister says NK not involved in Binance hack and calls allegations a “provocation”
• Tom Lee calls Binance hack “constructive,” points to no socialized losses & no DeFi blow-ups
• Strategy buys $65M of BTC last week and $208M of STRC

🐂 Tom Lee Calls the Binance Hack Bullish for Ethereum

Tom Lee looked at the largest crypto theft ever recorded and called the market’s response “constructive”. His company, BitMine Immersion, bought another 8,573 ETH last week, roughly $19.6 million worth, lifting the treasury to 6,060,506 ETH and about $13.7 billion. That’s 4.9% of the total circulating ETH supply, which makes Lee the most ETH-exposed executive on the planet.

His case comes down to one comparison. ETH fell about 4% after the $6.3 billion Binance hack. After the Bybit hack in February 2025, it dropped 8% on day one and 20% over the following week. Lee called that “relatively muted crypto market reaction very constructive” and read it as proof the industry can take a hit this size without cracking.

He pointed to four things behind the bullishness:

• Binance covered the loss from its own balance sheet instead of socializing it
• Tether and Circle froze the stolen stablecoins within hours
• No DeFi protocol blew up as collateral damage, and
• Investigators pinned the attack on North Korea almost immediately.

Each of those is a thing that went right in 2026 and went badly in 2025.

The price read holds up, but there are bigger questions for ETH’s future from a trading perspective. October was the worst month in the history of U.S. spot ETH ETFs, with $1.61 billion in net outflows. ETH is down 19% from its local peak, opposed to 11& for Bitcoin.

A potential driver of ETH’s weakness is Tom Lee himself. BitMine is now 99% of the way to the 5% supply cap Lee has said the company will stop at, about 49,500 ETH short, roughly six weeks at last week’s pace. ETH has had a large, price-insensitive, weekly corporate buyer for most of a year, and that buyer is nearly finished.

Now we wait to see what the bid looks like without it. And if Tom Lee’s bullish read is the correct one…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are slightly red as outflows continue; BTC -0.6% at $77.3k; ETH even at $2,280; SOL -1% at $93; HYPE -1% at $85; ZEC -3% at $1,210
• STX (+4%), WLFI (+2%), XMR (+3%) and PUMP (+4%) led top alt movers
• Oil -1% at $98; Gold even at $3,910
• Stock futures are mixed ahead of midterms; DOW -0.8%, Nasdaq +0.2%
• Brazil’s largest exchange Mercado Bitcoin halted deposits and withdrawals Monday after a security incident
• ZachXBT flagged more than $106 million drained from an unnamed EU entity’s exchange accounts on Sunday; he said with high confidence the thief is not Lazarus, and the money moved through ETH, Monero and cross-chain bridges within 24 hours
• BTCPay Server told merchants to shut down their instances Sunday after reports of attackers sweeping hot wallets with administrator access
• Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denied Pyongyang had any role in the $6.3 billion Binance hack, calling the FBI’s attribution “absurd rhetoric” and a “grave political provocation” in state media

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $399M in net outflows on Monday, making the total $1b+ over the past 2 sessions; the ETH ETFs saw $140M in outflows
• Strategy resumed buying with an 811 BTC purchase for $65.5 million at an average of $80,846, ending a one-week pause
• Strive added 124 BTC for about $10 million at an average of $80,526, bringing its treasury to 43,124 BTC worth roughly $3.3 billion; most of it came from existing cash, which fell to $490.4 million

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme leaders were flat; DOGE even, SHIB even, PEPE +1%, PENGU -1%, TRUMP -2%, SPX even, BONK even
• Robinhood chain leaders were very red; Pons -13% to $135M; Cashcat +5% at $105M; AI -12% at $55M; Forever +40% led top movers
• Solana top movers included Mamesuke +200%, ansum +30x, and Float +180%

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Hyperliquid led onchain protocols in revenue with $2.39M, followed by Pump.fun with $1.64M and Collector Crypt with $285k
• Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company holds roughly 150,000 Bitcoin, worth about $11.6 billion at current prices and that Tether has served 730M customers worldwide
• Binance has seen $2B in net inflows in the past day, though still a net $12B in outflows over the past week

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly red; Punks even at 30.4 ETH, BAYC -5% at 5.65 ETH, Pudgy -3% at 2.32 ETH
• Crawlers (+47%) and Punks2027 (+130%) led top movers

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