Binance hackers lose $119M in rushed trades as Ethereum validators pocket a $30M MEV windfall

1 Nov 2026

1 Nov 2026, 16:00 UTC+01:00

Ethereum TradeReviewed News Desk

The Binance hackers paid a steep price for speed. According to an Oct. 30 investigation by Bitquery, reported by CryptoSlate, the attackers behind the $6.3 billion Binance hack lost roughly $119 million by swapping stolen crypto at unfavorable prices while trying to move funds before stablecoin issuers could freeze them.

Those losses became someone else’s profit. Trading firms and automated bots kept about $60 million after costs, and another $29.5 million went to Ethereum block builders and validators as bots fought for priority in blocks.

Block tips jumped more than 2,200-fold

Bitquery found that Ethereum block builders received 10,251 ETH in tips between 20:30 UTC on Oct. 29 and 01:00 UTC on Oct. 30, compared with just 4.6 ETH in the same window the night before. On Ethereum alone, the attackers paid about $71.5 million above market prices to buy ETH. Their buying pushed Uniswap’s main WETH/USDT pool as much as 38% above the broader market, so arbitrage bots bought ETH elsewhere and sold it into the inflated pool.

Capturing that spread required priority blockspace, which set off a bidding war in Ethereum’s maximal extractable value (MEV) market. Validators received about 11,217 ETH over the four and a half hours, while builders kept about 564 ETH, largely through Titan’s relay. Stakers in services such as Lido can share in those execution rewards.

Tron and altcoin sales added to the losses

On Tron, the hackers swapped about 234 million USDT for TRX, paying $22.4 million above market, which gave arbitrage traders another $12.4 million before fees. They also gave up about $24.8 million by dumping tokens such as UNI, PEPE and ENA below market. That fits what we saw earlier as the attacker dumped more than 130 altcoins for ETH and USDC and later swapped stolen SOL into BTC.

Not every bot won. Bitquery counted 10,235 failed Ethereum transactions in the window, versus about 3,500 the night before. A wallet tied to the well-known MEV bot jaredfromsubway captured $2.87 million in discounts but paid $2.95 million in fees, a loss of about $110,000.

What it means for traders

• Price distortions are local: a single pool trading 38% above market shows how forced sellers or buyers can break on-chain prices for hours. Check several venues before trading in a stress event.
• Gas and fees spike: MEV bidding wars push up costs for everyone using Ethereum during the frenzy.
• Exchange choice matters: Binance is reopening withdrawals in phases. Our exchange comparison puts security, proof of reserves and fees side by side, including our top picks BingX and OKX.

This is not financial advice.

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Related reviews

• Bingx review
• Okx review

Sources

• CryptoSlate: Ethereum validators pocket $30 million windfall as Binance hackers lose $119 million in rushed trades

News is for information only and is not financial advice. More crypto news