U.S.-listed spot BNB ETFs attracted about $99 million in net inflows in October, ranking among the stronger performers in the month’s U.S. spot crypto ETF market. But almost all of that money arrived early: VanEck’s VBNB took in about $97 million on Oct. 2, weeks before Binance disclosed a hot-wallet attack on Oct. 29. Post-incident flows and fund assets will offer a measure of investor sentiment, though current data do not show how investors specifically responded to the breach.
VBNB’s Oct. 2 inflow made up nearly 99% of the monthly total
Data from SoSoValue show VBNB recorded about $99 million in net inflows for October, compared with $35 million for funds linked to NEAR and $19 million for XRP funds. Daily flow data indicate that about $97 million entered VBNB on Oct. 2, equal to 98.8% of its monthly net inflow. Assets under management rose from about $3 million on Oct. 1 to roughly $100 million on Oct. 2, and stood at about $103 million on Oct. 5. Flows were limited thereafter: the fund took in about $1 million on Oct. 9 and saw an outflow of roughly $285,000 on Oct. 15.
VBNB’s monthly ranking therefore reflects a large allocation at the start of the month rather than steady demand throughout October. VanEck launched the fund on May 28, giving U.S. investors exchange-traded exposure to BNB. It holds the tokens through custodians independent of Binance, including Anchorage Digital and BitGo. Fund shares provide exposure to BNB’s price; they do not represent an ownership stake in Binance.
Binance resumed withdrawals in stages after disclosing the theft
Binance said an attacker breached its hot wallet at about 20:05 UTC on Oct. 29 and stole tokens valued at approximately $6.3 billion. The exchange said it would cover the losses with company funds and its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), while working with token issuers and investigators to freeze the stolen assets. Binance said about $3 billion worth of assets had been frozen on-chain.
As of Nov. 1, Binance said it had replenished about 95% of the affected assets, with some harder-to-source tokens still being acquired. The exchange began restoring withdrawals in stages on Nov. 1 and said the initial rush of withdrawals had eased. In an update on Nov. 2, Binance also said it had completed full zero-knowledge proofs for the 10 tokens included in its Oct. 31 proof-of-reserves snapshot. It planned a broader snapshot for Nov. 4 and estimated that generating the corresponding proofs would take 40 to 50 hours.
VBNB’s assets fell from about $98 million on Oct. 29 to roughly $92 million on Oct. 30. But assets under management also move with BNB’s price, so the decline alone does not establish that investors redeemed ETF shares. Subsequent trading data will be needed to assess post-incident flows.
Bitcoin and ether funds posted monthly outflows
Flows into U.S. spot bitcoin and ether ETFs weakened over the same period. Bitcoin funds saw about $643 million in outflows on Oct. 30, reversing earlier inflows and leaving them with net outflows of roughly $515 million for the month. That marked a reversal from expectations that the funds could post a third consecutive month of net inflows. Bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000 after the Binance incident, but ETF demand had already softened beforehand, so the outflows cannot all be attributed to the attack.
Ether funds recorded about $1.61 billion in net outflows in October, more than the bitcoin funds and their largest monthly outflow since U.S. spot ether ETFs began trading in July 2024. BNB funds stood out with monthly net inflows, but those flows were heavily concentrated before the incident. Subscription and redemption data from the first full trading week of November should provide a clearer indication of whether demand for BNB products changed after Binance’s security breach.