Key takeaways
What caused the crypto market to drop by $100 billion in 24 hours?
A $128 million Balancer hack on six blockchains, cautious signals from the Federal Reserve regarding December rate cuts, and massive whale sales.
How widespread were the liquidations?
The liquidations wiped out more than $1.2 billion in leveraged positions.
The global crypto market lost around $100 billion in 24 hours on Monday. Total market capitalization fell to $3.5 trillion, a 4% drop, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin fell below $108,000 to trade at $106,500 (3%). Ethereum fell harder, down 8% to $3,600.
Three forces triggered the rout: a $128 million Balancer exploit, cautious signals from the Federal Reserve, and aggressive profit-taking by the whales.
Balancer exploit shakes DeFi confidence
Hackers hit Balancer V2 vaults at 09:00 GMT on November 3.
A faulty access control vulnerability allowed unauthorized withdrawals on six blockchains: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Polygon and Sonic.
PeckShield confirmed the damage. The attackers drained $128 million in assets, primarily WETH, osETH, and wstETH.
Berachain responded with the most drastic action: shutting down its entire network for an emergency hard fork.
This exploit is the third largest DeFi hack of 2025. Only Bybit’s $1.5 billion breach in February and Cetus Protocol’s $223 million loss in May have caused more damage.
Fed officials keep crypto market guessing
Mary Daly, President of the San Francisco Fed spoke on Mondayy about the December rate decision. She said the central bank should “keep an open mind” about further reduction.
Daly supported last week’s 25 basis point cut, but stressed that a balance will need to be struck.
Inflation is still around 3%, above the Fed’s 2% target. The job market continues to slow down. The Fed must manage these two risks.
The Fed’s caution boosted the US dollar and risk assets felt the pressure.
Markets are now closely watching key data releases this week, including JOLTS job postings, ADP payrolls and inflation reports. These numbers will determine the chances of a rate cut in December.
Whale dump, liquidations are increasing
Liquidations wiped out more than $1.2 billion in leveraged positions in 24 hours, data from Quinces. Long positions accounted for $1.1 billion of the total.
In addition, CryptoQuant Data reveals significant whale activity. A Bitcoin OG unloaded 13,004 BTC in October.
This past weekend alone, this whale transferred around 1,200 BTC to Kraken. Early Bitcoin holders continue to apply sustained selling pressure.
It’s not all doom and gloom for the crypto market
The strategy bought the dip. The company added 397 BTC for $45.6 million, at $114,771 per bitcoin. Total holdings now stand at 641,205 BTC. MicroStrategy has achieved a 26.1% year-to-date Bitcoin return in 2025.
Ripple has also launched major initiatives. The company completed its Hidden Road acquisition in October. On November 3, Ripple Prime launched for US institutional spot trading. The stablecoin RLUSD has surpassed the market capitalization of $1 billion.
Binance data shows $7.3 billion in stablecoin inflows, signaling that capital is waiting on the sidelines for opportunities to re-enter the crypto market.
