Binance Hackers Lose $119 Million in Rushed Trades

Binance hackers lost approximately $119 million in rushed cryptocurrency trades, creating a $30 million windfall for Ethereum validators and $60 million in profits for arbitrage bots. The losses occurred as attackers exchanged stolen assets at unfavorable prices to move funds beyond the reach of stablecoin issuers.

Block Builder Tips Surge 2,200-Fold

Bitquery’s investigation, published on Oct. 30, detailed the financial impact of the trading frenzy surrounding Binance’s $6.3 billion hack. The attackers converted stolen stablecoins and other assets into ETH and TRX between 20:30 UTC on Oct. 29 and 01:00 UTC on Oct. 30. During this four-and-a-half-hour period, Ethereum block builders received 10,251 ETH in tips. The equivalent period the previous night saw builders receive only 4.6 ETH, marking a more than 2,200-fold increase in payments.

The surge in tips resulted from intense competition for blockspace. On Ethereum, the attackers paid approximately $71.5 million above prevailing market prices to acquire ETH. This buying pressure pushed prices in Uniswap’s main WETH/USDT liquidity pool as much as 38% above the broader market. Arbitrage bots purchased ETH elsewhere and sold it into the inflated pool to capture the price discrepancy. To execute these trades, automated traders paid specialized block builders to prioritize their transactions through the maximal extractable value (MEV) market.

Builders subsequently bid for validators to propose their blocks, passing much of the revenue to the network participants responsible for finalizing transactions. Bitquery’s payment tracing showed that validators received approximately 11,217 ETH during the period. Builders retained about 564 ETH after distributing payments, largely through Titan’s relay. Validators operating through staking services such as Lido can distribute execution rewards to participating stakers, extending the windfall to investors securing the Ethereum network.

Arbitrage Bots Face Mixed Results

While trading firms captured roughly $60 million in profits after costs, the competition proved costly for some automated strategies. Bitquery recorded 10,235 failed Ethereum transactions during the four-and-a-half-hour window, compared with approximately 3,500 the previous night. Bots paid gas fees while competing for the same opportunities, leading to a higher rate of failed transactions.

The profit opportunities extended to other assets and blockchains. On Tron, the hackers exchanged approximately 234 million USDT for TRX, paying $22.4 million above market prices. Traders exploiting the resulting discrepancies generated another $12.4 million before fees. The attackers also sacrificed approximately $24.8 million by selling stolen tokens, including UNI, PEPE and ENA, below market prices.

Bitquery identified specific outcomes for individual arbitrage bots. A wallet associated with the MEV bot jaredfromsubway captured $2.87 million in trading discounts but paid $2.95 million in fees, resulting in a net loss of roughly $110,000. Another unnamed bot paid $3.51 million to capture $3.24 million in trading opportunities, recording a loss of approximately $820,000. These results illustrate the high costs associated with competing in the MEV market during periods of extreme volatility.