Worried About Crypto Hacks? Buy Bitcoin Proxies in Stock Market Instead, Say Wall Street Firms

Wall Street analysts are recommending clients buy crypto-linked stocks rather than digital assets directly following the $6.3 billion Binance hack, the largest crypto theft on record.

Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald, TD Cowen, and Compass Point said in Friday research notes the breach is unlikely to derail the broader market's recovery. The exploit sent Bitcoin sliding toward $77,000.

Cantor's Ramsey El-Assal noted that stablecoin issuers and others froze roughly $3 billion of the stolen funds. Tether froze more than $1.5 billion, Circle about $800 million, and Ripple around $200 million. El-Assal expects shares of Coinbase, Robinhood, and Strategy to recover once the panic fades. "We would be buyers on weakness," he wrote, adding that "this is not 2022."

TD Cowen's Lance Vitanza argued the breach exposed weaknesses in Binance's security rather than in Bitcoin's underlying technology, framing the selloff as a chance to buy Bitcoin and stocks of public companies that hold it.

Compass Point's Ed Engel and Michael Donovan said Binance has "more than enough liquidity to cover the hole" and flagged that rivals like Coinbase and Hyperliquid could pick up business. They are watching the $75,000 to $77,000 Bitcoin range as a key level.

The rationale is that regulated, exchange-listed proxies like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Strategy offer crypto exposure without the custody risk the hack exposed, and tend to rebound once sentiment steadies.

Cristiano Ventricelli, vice president of digital assets at Moody's Ratings, said the incident "underscores the heightened cybersecurity risks associated with hot wallets" and "illustrates the risk concentration inherent in large, centralized intermediaries." He cautioned that broader implications depend on "the ultimate losses, affected counterparties, asset recovery, and importantly, whether the incident leads to wider disruption or loss of confidence."

Binance set aside $6.34 billion to cover losses and told users their assets are safe. The Secret Service and FBI opened a probe. Firms including TRM and Chainalysis tied the hack to North Korea's TraderTraitor group.