Anthropic's massive investment could reshape AI competition, influencing market valuations and driving demand for infrastructure suppliers.

The post Anthropic commits up to $567B for compute and infrastructure expansion appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Foxconn's strategic AI focus and US manufacturing expansion could reshape global AI infrastructure dynamics, challenging competitors' market shares.

The post Foxconn plans OpenAI collaboration, dismisses AI bubble fears appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The development of WM-Basin could significantly enhance the detection of unauthorized AI model replication, impacting AI security and intellectual property rights.

The post Meta paper shows watermarks can expose distilled AI models appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Foxconn's potential dominance in AI servers could reshape global tech supply chains, intensifying competition and influencing market dynamics.

The post Foxconn chairman eyes 50% of the global AI server market appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Hyperliquid's rise in market cap signals shifting investor confidence and potential growth, impacting the competitive landscape of cryptocurrencies.

The post Hyperliquid surpasses Zcash in market cap at $22B appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Briefly Slides to $76,300 as Binance Confirms Hack Estimated at $6.3 Billion

Bitcoin traded in the $76,300 range on Thursday as Binance confirmed a security breach that the exchange estimates at $6.3 billion in total impact. The figure would place the incident among the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record. 

Earlier in the session, bitcoin reached a 24-hour high of $81,890 before the selloff, as millions in leveraged long positions were liquidated.

In a post on X, the exchange said its initial investigation suggests the incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop. The attacker reportedly gained access to a service container and submitted unauthorized withdrawal transactions. The exchange said it has found no evidence of a wallet private key leak. 

“The estimated total impact sits at around 6.3B. We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~3 billion frozen on-chain so far. Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company’s funds. User funds are safe. We will also publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation is complete,” Binance posted on X

The $6.3 billion estimate is higher than earlier figures, which ranged from $2.7 billion to $5.8 billion. The exchange said it has worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with about $3 billion frozen onchain so far. 

“We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are verified,” the company said.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said earlier that the company froze more than 1.567 billion USDT, and Circle also froze USDC tied to the suspected attacker.

Co-founder Yi He wrote on X that user funds are safe and that Binance will cover all hacking losses. Concerns over a potential hack surfaced after a user noticed more than $2.7 billion in assets, including Ethereum and stablecoins issued by Tether and Circle, being moved from a Binance wallet to an external account under suspicious circumstances.

Binance suspends transactions

Deposits and withdrawals remain suspended while the exchange conducts security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement. The exchange said it has revoked the affected address authorization and is working to confirm the identities of those responsible.

Aave reportedly froze lending markets to block the suspected attacker from borrowing against the stolen funds. Binance.US said the incident does not affect its platform.

The company has not released a timeline for the full post-mortem. Until then, the exchange is asking users to rely only on official Binance channels for updates.

Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, tweeted on X during the exploit: “User funds are safe! It does look like a hack on Binance. Appreciate the quick freeze from [Tether and Circle]. I don’t manage Binance (.com) anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.”

Bitcoin dropped to $76,301 as news of the hack was circulating. Bitcoin is currently trading near $77,800.

This post Bitcoin Price Briefly Slides to $76,300 as Binance Confirms Hack Estimated at $6.3 Billion first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy (MSTR) Posts Record Operating Income as Bitcoin Rebounds in Q3 2026

Strategy posted the largest operating income in its history on Thursday, booking $20.91 billion for the third quarter of 2026. Most of that total came from a paper gain on the company’s bitcoin stack. 

Net income reached $19.53 billion, or $44.75 per diluted share, up from $2.79 billion a year earlier. 

Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kang, who announced his departure in the same release, framed the result plainly: “Q3 operating income of $21 billion was the largest ever in Strategy’s history.”

Strategy marks its bitcoin to market each quarter, so every price move flows into earnings. Bitcoin rallied during the period. The company’s 848,517 bitcoin were worth $68.9 billion as of October 23, when the token traded at $81,200. The holdings carry an average cost of $75,446, which leaves the position in the black on paper. 

Kang pointed to the purchases as the engine of the quarter, saying the company “increased our bitcoin holdings by 26% year-to-date in a challenging bitcoin market.”

Total revenue fell 3%from a year ago to $125.4 million, below analyst estimates of $127.2 million. Gross profit came in at $89.6 million, a 71% margin compared with 70% a year earlier. The company ended September with $2.50 billion in cash and equivalents and $3.40 billion in short-term investments.

Strategy’s bitcoin per share slips

Bitcoin per share, the metric management uses as its main yardstick, moved the other way. The BTC yield stands at negative 3.7% for the year, meaning each share holds less bitcoin than it did in January. Measured in dollars, the bitcoin position shows a $2.03 billion loss over the same period. To fund preferred dividends and stock buybacks, the company has sold roughly $431.8 million of bitcoin this year, a figure the release puts at approximately that amount.

Strategy raised $21.23 billion of capital in 2026, including $5.41 billion in net proceeds from its at-the-market program during the third quarter alone. The company then spent a large part of that money on its own preferred stock. It repurchased 20,980,508 shares of STRC for $2.04 billion at an average of $97.39 per share, a discount to the $100 stated amount.

Chief Executive Phong Le said the buyback program was meant to put the security on firmer footing: “Strategy demonstrated its commitment to returning STRC to health.” Management said it intends to keep buying while STRC trades below par, and about $956.7 million remains under the authorization.

The company’s dollar reserves now total $5.07 billion, made up of a $4.83 billion USD Reserve and $242.4 million of USD Cash. Strategy says that cushion covers 3.4 years of dividend and interest obligations. The board kept the STRC dividend rate at 12.00% to support trading near the $100 stated amount.

STRC moves to daily dividends

Shareholders approved a move to daily dividends on October 28. STRC begins paying daily on November 1, and STRF, STRK, and STRD follow on January 1, 2027. 

Le framed the change as a step toward a different kind of market: “Daily dividends are a natural step toward the tokenized, 24/7/365 financial system. Digital Credit is being built for that world, and Strategy intends to lead it.” 

Strategy also expects its preferred distributions to count as a non-taxable return of capital for ten years or more, because it does not expect positive accumulated earnings and profits. Shareholders should consult their own tax advisers.

That said, Strategy’s STRC stock is nearing $100. Earlier today, STRC reached $99.99 which once par would reopen funding for Bitcoin purchases. As mentioned ealier, shareholders approved daily dividends to improve liquidity and reduce price volatility. That said, Strategy has not yet confirmed a restart of STRC share issuance.

This post Strategy (MSTR) Posts Record Operating Income as Bitcoin Rebounds in Q3 2026 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Price Slides Below $79,000 as Binance Loses $5.8 Billion in Massive Hack

Bitcoin dropped below $79,000 on Thursday as reports of a suspected multibillion-dollar hack at Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, rippled through markets. 

The selloff followed reports of heavy outflows from Binance-linked wallets. Some social media reports cited suspicious outflows of up to $5.8 billion, citing onchain data that shows about $3.55 billion in incoming transfers to an unlabeled wallet. 

Conor Grogan, a senior director at Coinbase, put the figure at $5.8 billion.

Stablecoin issuers moved to freeze funds. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the company froze more than 1.567 billion USDT. Circle froze about $823 million in USDC, according to former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who remains a shareholder. 

Combined freezes range from $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion depending on reports. “Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority,” Ardoino said.

Binance has made no official confirmation of a breach. Co-founder Yi He wrote on X that the company is aware of reports of a potential security issue and that its security teams are reviewing all relevant information. 

“We are aware of reports of a potential security issue and we are actively investigating…our security teams are reviewing all relevant information with urgency, and we will provide updates through official Binance channels as soon as we have verified information. Users should remain cautious of scams and should not trust unofficial links, messages, or requests for account information.”

Zhao wrote that, in his view, the exchange appears to have been hacked, and he expects all user funds to be covered.

“I don’t manage Binance anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered,” Zhao posted.

Blockchain researcher Spreek flagged the activity, which reportedly included a transfer through a contract call allegedly funded by Tornado Cash. Blockaid said it is investigating $3.3 billion in suspicious outflows from Binance hot wallets across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche.

If confirmed, the incident would be the largest crypto theft on record, surpassing the February 2025 Bybit hack of roughly $1.5 billion. Aave reportedly froze lending markets to block the suspected attacker from borrowing. 

Binance.US said the incident does not affect its platform.

Figures remain fluid. One estimate puts the realized loss near 0.7% of Binance customer assets, and other reports continue to revise totals. Neither Binance nor law enforcement has released a formal account of the cause.

Crypto exchange Bybit was not affected. They tweeted that their “systems are operating normally, trading and withdrawals remain available, and user assets remain secure.”

Bitcoin price drops under $79,000 after Binance hack jitters

Bitcoin is trading at $78,800, down 2.89% (about $2,350) over the past 24 hours. The price hit a 24-hour high of $81,890 around midday before sliding sharply after 4 p.m. ET, when it fell to a low of $78,177.37, after rumors of the hack circulated. 

Trading volume over the period was about $26.14 billion, and bitcoin’s market cap stands at roughly $1.58 trillion.

This post Bitcoin Price Slides Below $79,000 as Binance Loses $5.8 Billion in Massive Hack first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

FutureBit Apollo Solo Miner Finds Bitcoin Block 973262, Earning 3.154 BTC

A miner operating through FutureBit’s Apollo Solo setup found Bitcoin block 973,262 earlier this week, collecting the full reward of 3.154 BTC plus fees from 2,477 transactions. Multiple explorers, including mempool.space, list the finder as “FutureBit Apollo Solo,” and the coinbase transaction includes text referencing FutureBit and Apollo.

FutureBit posted about the find on X: “Gradually, then suddenly. We (the people) hit a Bitcoin block today. Bitcoin belongs in the hands of sovereign individuals. And we’re building to keep it there.” The company stated that an Apollo device or Solo Node running its built-in solo pool assembled the block template, served the work, and submitted the completed block to the network. The public record does not identify the exact hardware or hashrate that produced the winning hash. It could have been an Apollo BTC, Apollo II, Apollo III, or other compatible machines pointed at a Solo Node, according to FutureBit’s account of the block. 

This marks at least the fourth block attributed to FutureBit Apollo Solo. Earlier ones include blocks 867,760, 881,423, and 888,737. FutureBit designs its Apollo hardware for operators who want to run a full Bitcoin node and mine independently at home rather than through large commercial pools. The most recent model, the Apollo III, is rated for up to 18 TH/s in turbo mode with an integrated full node. Bitcoin Magazine covered the Apollo III launch in February 2026 and previously examined FutureBit’s approach to home mining in a July 2025 piece.

Solo mining, is often called lottery mining because of the low odds relative to the size of the reward, remains uncommon against a network hashrate that has recently sat near 1,070–1,087 EH/s. A home-scale setup in the 10–18 TH/s range still faces expected times to a block measured in centuries under current difficulty, yet verified solo finds continue to appear on-chain. Bitcoin Magazine examined the mathematics of these odds in an article titled Why Bitcoin Lottery Mining Has Better Odds Than The Powerball. It compared continuous Bitcoin block attempts with the much lower frequency of major lottery draws.

Another solo block was found the following day via CKPool Solo,  illustrating that individual operators can still capture full rewards even as industrial pools produce the large majority of blocks. For users running FutureBit hardware, the company notes that the individual users control both the node and the solo pool, retaining the full reward when a block is found. Solo mining also has significant privacy benefits, and hardware and energy costs can be written off against taxes in some jurisdictions.

The October 26 block is one more validation that solo mining can be viable. Satoshi Nakamoto’s original Bitcoin design intended the full Bitcoin node to be able to mine blocks, not just validate and audit the blockchain. Improvements in hardware and mining optimizations later on led to the creation of mining pools, which created a very competitive and industrial mining sector. The secondary effects of industrial Bitcoin mining, such as reliable energy demand that can stabilize the grid, have been a boon for states like Texas. 

However, the dream of bringing mining back to homes and end users remains alive through companies like FutureBit, Bitaxe, and HeatBit, among others, that are converting heating appliances into Bitcoin miners or designing hardware of the sort for the home.

This post FutureBit Apollo Solo Miner Finds Bitcoin Block 973262, Earning 3.154 BTC first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Juan Galt.

Bitcoin Magazine

Franklin Templeton Officially Launches 2 Bitcoin DRIP ETFs That Turn Dividends Into Bitcoin

Two Nasdaq-listed funds route dividends from large U.S. companies into a bitcoin sleeve that grows with every payment.

Franklin Templeton has officially launched two exchange-traded funds that convert stock dividends into bitcoin. The Franklin U.S. Equity Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FBEQ) and the Franklin U.S. Innovation Bitcoin DRIP Index ETF (FIBT) will trade on Nasdaq. 

The launch completes the last regulatory step after Franklin filed registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 22. The filings for both funds arrived in June without tickers or fees. Four months after that filing, the details are in. 

How the funds work

FBEQ tracks the VettaFi U.S. Large-Cap 500 Bitcoin DRIP Index. The index holds the 500 largest U.S. companies by market capitalization, weighted by float-adjusted market cap. As of September 30, it held 499 stocks ranging from $10.2 billion to $5.5 trillion in size, with the heaviest concentration in information technology.

At inception, the index allocates 95% to those stocks and 5% to BTC. Each dividend the companies pay, whether regular or special, is reinvested into BTC at the market open on the day after the ex-date. The BTC share of the portfolio grows with each payment.

A traditional dividend reinvestment plan, or DRIP, uses cash dividends to buy more shares of the company that paid them. Franklin’s version routes that cash into BTC. For a holder, the dividend stream from the largest companies in America becomes a recurring BTC purchase, with no exchange account, no wallet and no custody decisions.

The bitcoin position has limits. At each quarterly rebalance, any allocation above 5% gets trimmed to 4.5%. If BTC exceeds 20% of the index between rebalances, the index cuts it to 4.5% within two business days, and the proceeds return to stocks. 

The result is a stock fund with a bitcoin sleeve, a different product from a BTC fund.

The fund holds no BTC on-chain. It gains exposure through BTC exchange-traded products, including Franklin’s own spot fund, through bitcoin futures and options, or through depositary receipts, in some cases via a Cayman Islands subsidiary.

FBEQ carries a 0.09% expense ratio and charges no 12b-1 fee. Franklin Advisory Services manages the fund, with Franklin Templeton Institutional as sub-advisor.

Bitcoin as a mature, investable asset

“Bitcoin has matured as an investable asset, supported by deeper market infrastructure, broader adoption and a growing understanding of the role it can play in portfolios,” said Dina Ting, SVP and Head of Index Investments at Franklin Templeton. “A systematic approach to building exposure is one way to address this next stage of adoption.”

Jeff Masom, Head of U.S. Distribution and Global Wealth Management Private Markets, framed the funds as a new way to combine U.S. equities and bitcoin through a differentiated index methodology.

This post Franklin Templeton Officially Launches 2 Bitcoin DRIP ETFs That Turn Dividends Into Bitcoin first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

The Colombia-focused pilot explores integration through Connetic, while bank participation, production volumes and measured benefits remain undisclosed.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

The October 29 official summaries connect settlement access, infrastructure, oversight and coordination while keeping potential benefits and risks conditional.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

The Binance attacker spent at least 36 hours preparing for the $6.36 billion crypto exchange hack that began with $296 million in XRP. According to an Oct. 29 investigation by TRM Labs, the attacker began preparing the operation on Oct. 28 before executing coordinated transfers across 10 blockchains the following evening. The blockchain intelligence firm…

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

Legacy USDC integrations face shrinking capacity ahead of Dec. 1, while Circle plans to keep pending redemptions available during the wind-down.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

Owner-key signatures and old bot wallets reveal the stakes of service controls, while @BloomTrading denies private-key compromise.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

Understand the crypto stories that matter and what to watch next. Get The Catalyst in your inbox

The biggest hack in the history of crypto just hit the biggest exchange in the world, and $Bitcoin dropped only 2%. A $2.8 billion hole in Binance’s hot wallet, $628 million in liquidations in a single hour, and BTC gave back less than it loses on a bad ETF-flow day. Whether that resilience holds is the question now. Here is what happened, and where the Bitcoin price can go from here.

What happened to Binance?

On Thursday night at 20:24 UTC, a Binance hot wallet was drained in a single transaction, with roughly $2.8 billion in ETH, stablecoins and other tokens leaving on Ethereum. Trackers put total outflows across several chains at up to $3.55 billion, which makes this the biggest crypto hack ever, well above the $1.5 billion Bybit exploit of February 2025.

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao was the first to call it a hack and said user funds are safe and will be fully covered. Tether and Circle moved fast and froze around $2.4 billion in USDT and USDC linked to the attacker. BNB was the real victim of the night, dropping 6.3% in 35 minutes, while Bitcoin slid from $80,327 to a low of $78,763, a drop of just 1.9%.

For the full minute-by-minute timeline, the liquidation data and the on-chain movements of the attacker, read our crypto crash after the Binance hack timeline.

Why is a 2% Bitcoin drop actually bullish?

Context matters. When Mt. Gox collapsed in 2014, Bitcoin lost more than half its value over the following months. When FTX imploded in November 2022, BTC fell 25% in a week. When Bybit was drained in February 2025, the drop was closer to 8%. Now the largest hack ever happens on the largest exchange ever, and the reaction is 2%.

Bitcoin is simply not the same asset it was in those cycles. Spot ETFs, corporate treasuries and sovereign buyers hold a large share of the supply far away from any exchange hot wallet, and none of the stolen funds were BTC. The market read the hack for what it is: a Binance problem, not a Bitcoin problem. That is the single most important takeaway of the night, and it shapes the targets below. You can follow the live price on our crypto prices page.

Where is Bitcoin price today?

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $78,206, up 0.53% on the day after bouncing from a 24-hour low of $76,320. The daily chart shows yesterday’s red candle closing just below the $78,670 level that acted as support throughout September and most of October, and today’s candle trying to reclaim it.

The RSI sits at 37.84, below its moving average at 45.53. That is weak, but not oversold yet, and it reflects the slow bleed from the $86,000 highs of late September much more than the hack itself. Again: the hack took 2% off the price, the preceding three weeks took far more.

Bitcoin higher targets: can BTC recover?

The first job for the bulls is simple: close a daily candle back above $78,670. $Bitcoin lived above this level for two months, and reclaiming it would turn the hack candle into a classic liquidity sweep, where a shock event wicks below support, stops out weak hands, and price snaps back. Today’s green candle is the first attempt.

Above that, the next target is the $82,000 zone, which capped every bounce in the second half of October and is where the pre-hack high sits. A break of $82,000 opens the path back to $84,000 and then the $86,000 September highs.

The big one remains $88,000, the yellow ceiling on the chart that Bitcoin has not touched since the summer rally. If a 2% reaction to the biggest hack in crypto history is the worst the bears can do, that ceiling is the medium-term target once the dust settles.

Bitcoin lower targets: how low can BTC fall?

The first line of defense is $76,426, which is where the rising moving average sits and exactly where yesterday’s wick found buyers. It is no coincidence that the 24-hour low of $76,320 landed within a hundred dollars of it. As long as daily candles close above this line, the uptrend that started in August is intact.

If it breaks, $74,450 is the next support, the level that held the September pullback and the lower edge of the August to October range. A drop to $74,450 would be a 5% move from current prices and would still leave Bitcoin above where it traded before the September breakout.

Only below $74,450 does the picture change. The next meaningful supports are far lower, at $66,803 and $65,000, where the August breakout started, with the $62,277 cycle low beneath them. Those levels are 15% to 20% away, and nothing in the price action right now points there. A hack that moved the market 2% is not the catalyst for a 20% drop.

What to watch next

• Binance withdrawals. As long as withdrawals keep flowing normally, the Bitcoin price has no reason to revisit the lows.
• The attacker’s ETH. Around 195,000 ETH cannot be frozen. If it is dumped through DEXs, Ethereum takes the hit, not Bitcoin, but altcoins could drag sentiment.
• The $78,670 reclaim. This is the level that decides whether this week was a sweep or the start of something worse.

Bottom line: the biggest hack in crypto history cost Bitcoin 2%. Hold $76,426, reclaim $78,670, and the road to $82,000 and $88,000 is open. Lose $74,450, and we revisit this analysis.

Chainlink costs 10.42 dollars and has lost 11.47 percent within 24 hours. Bitcoin gave up 5.15 percent over the same period. The reason for that gap does not lie with Chainlink itself: an unexplained movement of balances at the exchange Binance set off a wave of forced closures of leveraged positions on the evening of 29 October, and in waves like that mid-sized coins regularly fall twice as far as Bitcoin. For holders of Chainlink, that means the slide is part of a market move, while October's fundamental news points the other way.

Chainlink at 10.42 dollars: the slide in figures

Chainlink trades at 10.42 dollars, down 11.47 percent against the previous day. Over the week the decline stands at 10.96 percent. That puts LINK in 17th place among the largest cryptocurrencies by market value.

For comparison, the moves of the larger assets over the same window: Bitcoin lost 5.15 percent to 76,931 dollars, Ether 6.25 percent to 2,207.06 dollars. BNB, Binance's exchange token, fell 8.84 percent, XRP 8.03 percent, Solana 7.93 percent to 93.80 dollars. Cardano gave up 9.62 percent, and NEAR Protocol was the weakest in the field of the 25 largest coins at 15.52 percent. Only Hyperliquid at 12.26 percent, TRON at 7.98 percent and Monero at 3.26 percent moved higher.

Taken over the whole of October, Chainlink is down around 21 percent according to several market reports. The month has therefore run much weaker for LINK than for Bitcoin, and the drop of this night extends a move that has been under way for weeks.

Altcoins in a sell-down: beta and liquidity decide how far a coin falls

That a coin like Chainlink falls further than Bitcoin in a sell-down has two traceable causes, and neither has anything to do with the project.

The first is beta. The term describes how strongly an asset reacts to the movement of the overall market: a beta above one means the coin amplifies the market move, upwards as well as downwards. Most altcoins sit permanently above one, because in selling phases investors first shed the assets they regard as riskier, and in buying phases they look for the greater upside there.

The second cause is market depth. That means how many buy and sell orders sit close to the current price in the order book. For Bitcoin, the amounts there run into the billions; for a coin in 17th place, considerably less. A selling wave of the same size therefore pushes the price further down. Both effects work together, and in the night of 30 October a third was added: leverage.

The trigger: unexplained outflows at Binance

On the evening of 29 October, according to several market observers, balances running into the billions left a hot wallet attributed to Binance. A hot wallet is a wallet that is permanently connected to the internet and handles an exchange's day-to-day business, in contrast to a cold wallet, which is kept offline. Reports put the movement in the region of 2.8 billion dollars.

At this point precision matters more than speed: a loss of customer funds is not confirmed. Binance itself had said on 27 October that it had repelled several cyberattacks, without funds flowing out and without a breach succeeding. For the movements of 29 October, no conclusive account from the exchange is available so far, and a forensic analysis of the transactions is not publicly accessible. What moved the market, then, was uncertainty in the first instance, not an established loss. cryptoticker.io set out the chronology of the evening on 29 October in a timeline of its own.

A further factor in price formation was that Binance temporarily suspended withdrawals for individual networks. When balances on an exchange cannot be moved for a time, market participants sell where they can act, and that adds to the pressure on prices.

590 to 628 million dollars of liquidations in one hour

The actual push downwards came from forced closures. A liquidation is the automatic unwinding of a leveraged position by the exchange as soon as the collateral posted no longer covers the loss. That unwinding is itself a sale. If the price falls further, it reaches the threshold of the next position, and a chain reaction begins.

Figures for the size of this wave diverge. For the peak hour, market reports cite between 590 and 628 million dollars of positions unwound, mostly bets on rising prices. For the full day, the range of reported sums runs from 356 to 834 million dollars. These differences come down to the measurement: the data providers cover different exchanges and in some cases report only one position per unwinding event. Continuously updated totals are published by CoinGlass.

Anyone reading a figure like that should keep one thing in view: liquidations are an amplifier, not a cause. They explain why a price loses ten percent in an hour, and they do not explain why it falls for a month.

18 days of net outflows: what exchange balances say about LINK

Alongside the falling price, a movement is running at Chainlink that does not fit the picture at first sight. According to analyses of exchange flow data, LINK left the exchange Binance on a net basis for 18 trading days in a row, most recently on the order of around 280,200 tokens. Net means more was withdrawn than paid in. Individual analyses point out explicitly that this value is the latest reading and not the sum of all 18 days. Over the four days to 20 October, cryptoticker.io had reported an outflow of 246,800 LINK.

An outflow like that is usually read as a sign that holders are taking their coins into their own custody instead of leaving them ready to sell on the exchange. That reading has to be handled with care here, for a concrete reason: the withdrawal was preceded by a large inflow, which analysts put at about 8.7 million LINK. Part of the later outflows may therefore simply be the distribution of that deposit. Data from CryptoQuant shows balances across all exchanges back at around 124.2 million LINK, close to the level before the inflow. A figure showing outflows is no proof that new buyers have stepped in.

The movement did have one practical side effect on this night: anyone who pulled their tokens off the exchange over recent weeks was not affected by the temporary suspension of withdrawals.

Chainlink CustodySync and the reserve: the fundamentals in October

October was an active month for the project behind LINK, which explains the gap between the price and the news. On 26 October, Chainlink presented CustodySync, a service that lets licensed custodians give their institutional clients access to lending markets in decentralised finance without the assets leaving custody. Chainlink names Anchorage Digital Bank as the launch partner. The custody system remains authoritative for the holdings, the price data for the loan-to-value ratio comes from Chainlink, and a named collateral agent handles the unwinding in the event of a loss. Chainlink relates the announcement to around 700 billion dollars of digital assets under custody, by its own account less than 0.5 percent of the traditional custody market. cryptoticker.io wrote up what the service means for investors in detail on 28 October.

Added to that is the Chainlink Reserve, a holding into which the project transfers revenue from its services. Figures for it range between about 6.05 and 6.29 million LINK depending on the date of measurement. This is not a number that decides the current price: the reserve is small relative to the circulating supply.

This placement belongs to the picture: product announcements and institutional partnerships rarely move a price within days. They take effect when measurable demand for the token comes out of them, and for CustodySync that evidence is still outstanding.

Spot ETFs on LINK: eight sessions without a net inflow

A look at the funds completes the picture. According to market reports, the spot funds on Chainlink recorded neither net inflows nor net outflows for eight trading days in a row. For the price, that is the more awkward kind of standstill: a fund reporting inflows has to buy tokens in the market and thereby creates demand. If it stays flat, that buyer drops out.

For investors in Germany, one distinction matters here. The spot funds licensed in the United States are generally not tradable here. Anyone looking for regulated access via an exchange usually finds it in the form of an ETN, a debt security on the price, traded on Xetra for example. An ETN is legally not a fund unit but a claim against the issuer, and therefore carries that issuer's default risk. It is usually backed by coins deposited against it.

Own custody instead of an exchange account: why the seed phrase counts

The night has put a question back on the table that applies regardless of Chainlink: where do your own coins sit. Balances on an exchange are a claim against that exchange, not direct ownership. Anyone transferring the coins into their own wallet holds them themselves, and carries full responsibility for securing them.

The seed phrase is the decisive point here. It is a sequence of usually twelve or 24 words from which all the private keys of a wallet can be restored. Whoever holds it controls the balance, regardless of the device. It therefore belongs on paper or metal and never in a photo gallery, a cloud store or a chat. A hardware wallet keeps the private key in a dedicated chip that does not release it, and allows transfers only after confirmation on the device.

The other side belongs to the assessment: self-custody rules out the exchange's error and rules in your own. A lost access is final; there is no body that resets a password. Which route suits whom depends on the amount and on trading frequency, not on one evening's news.

Buying route in Germany: MiCA licence, holding period and spread

Anyone wanting to buy or sell Chainlink in Germany sensibly checks three things, and two of them are regularly overlooked.

First, the licence. Since the EU regulation on markets in crypto-assets, MiCA for short, providers need a permission for crypto services in the EU; for German customers, BaFin runs the supervision. Whether a provider is licensed can be looked up in the supervisor's public registers, and that is the first step before a deposit. An overview of the venues available in Germany including fees is set out in the comparison of crypto exchanges.

Second, the costs. Alongside the stated fee, the spread counts, meaning the gap between the buy and sell price. In volatile phases like this night that gap widens, because fewer orders sit close to the price. With a coin in 17th place that stands out more than with Bitcoin. A limit order, an order with a set maximum or minimum price, protects against being filled at a price you have not seen.

Third, tax. In Germany, cryptocurrencies count as other economic assets. A gain from a sale within one year of purchase is taxable; after a holding period of one year it stays tax-free. Below the exemption limit of 1,000 euros in a calendar year, gains from private sales within the period remain untaxed; once it is exceeded, the entire amount is taxable. For the tax bill, the date of sale therefore counts alongside the selling price.

Leverage and liquidation price: in the EU there is no additional margin call

This night's liquidation wave hit leveraged positions. Anyone trading with leverage deploys more capital than they have posted; the difference is borrowed. The liquidation price is the price at which the collateral posted is used up and the position is closed automatically. With a coin showing double-digit daily moves, that price sits closer to the current price than many allow for.

Two points are concrete for investors in Germany. First, with providers serving retail clients under EU supervision there is no obligation to post more than the margin. The loss is limited to the capital deployed, and no claim can arise beyond the account. Second, a stop order does not replace that protection. It triggers a sale at the next price available, and in a chain reaction that price can sit well below the level set. Anyone using derivatives compares the fees and the funding costs beforehand, for example in the overview of the best perp DEXs.

For the great majority of readers, the sober finding stands: leverage produced the fall of this night. Without it, a price decline of ten percent is uncomfortable and nothing more.

Which levels carry Chainlink now: 10.35 and 11.36 dollars

On the downside, technical analyses name two areas. One level sits at 10.66 dollars and was already broken during this night, the next at 10.35 dollars. If that area does not hold, the chart shows no further pronounced zone where buyers have been found over recent months until single-digit prices.

On the upside, the first task is a return above the area around 11.36 to 11.48 dollars, where LINK traded after the CustodySync launch at the end of October. Only above that does the recovery become more than a counter-move within a downtrend.

These levels are orientation, not a forecast. They say where supply and demand have met in the past, and not what the price will do.

Chainlink below 11 dollars: without fresh inflows there is no floor

The situation at month-end can be summed up briefly. The drop of this night is market-driven and amplified by leverage; the trigger lies with an exchange and not with Chainlink. The fundamental side gained ground in October, without measurable demand for the token coming out of it so far. For as long as the funds stay flat and the market has not placed the Binance incident conclusively, the price lacks the buyer who carries a recovery.

Three steps that make sense regardless:

1. Check the venue. Look at whether your provider holds a MiCA permission for the EU and how wide its spread on LINK is in this phase. The comparison of crypto exchanges sets fees and licensing side by side.
2. Settle custody. Decide for your own holdings what stays on the exchange and what goes into your own wallet, and secure the seed phrase offline. Which devices differ for that is shown by the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Record purchase data. Note the date and price for every position, so that the one-year window and the exemption limit of 1,000 euros stay verifiable. The crypto tax tools handle that automatically.

(As of October 30, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

TRX trades around 6 percent higher than the day before, even as the broad crypto market slid in the night of 30 October 2026. That makes TRON one of four out of twenty large coins that came through the sell pressure in positive territory. No single documented trigger for that lead has emerged so far; what can be documented is the market situation itself and the difference between the networks.

Crypto sell pressure: what happened in the market on the night of 30 October

The trigger for the drop does not sit in the crypto market itself but at a single exchange. On Thursday evening, according to FinanceFeeds, around 3.3 billion dollars left two Binance hot wallets on the Ethereum blockchain. A hot wallet is a wallet whose keys sit on a system connected to the internet, so that an exchange can serve withdrawals without delay.

The movement began at 20:24 UTC. The address labelled "Binance 14" sent roughly 167,464 ETH, 1.615 billion USDT and 62 further tokens to a fresh address in a single transaction, around 2.5 billion dollars in total. Seventeen minutes later came 780 million USDC from a second exchange wallet, and later a further 43 million USDC and about 28,006 ETH from a third. Block explorer Etherscan now lists the addresses involved under the label "Binance Hot Wallet Exploiter".

Binance itself had not confirmed a breach by the time of writing. A spokesperson said the company was investigating reports of a possible security incident but had found no impact on customer funds. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao wrote on X that customer funds were safe and that it looked like an attack on Binance. Tether and Circle have frozen around 1.8 billion dollars of the stablecoins involved. Roughly 700 million USDT and 445 million dollars in ETH had been moved on before or outside that freeze.

Figures for the total diverge. Depending on how many blockchains an observer counts, estimates range between 2.4 and 5.8 billion dollars. That range is given here deliberately, because a single figure would be false precision at this point.

TRX, HYPE, XMR and LEO: these four coins in the top 25 held gains

For this article we went through the twenty-five largest cryptocurrencies by market value and compared the change over the past twenty-four hours. Five of them are stablecoins, whose price is pegged to the dollar and therefore barely moves. That leaves twenty coins with a free-floating price. Four of them traded higher than the day before.

Hyperliquid leads the group with a gain of around 13 percent, TRX follows with about 6 percent, Monero is a good 2 percent up and LEO just above water. On the other side, sixteen coins are down, led by NEAR with almost 14 percent and Chainlink with a good 9 percent loss. Bitcoin itself gave up just under 3 percent and fell from around 80,800 to about 78,800 dollars in the hour after the first outflows.

This analysis was compiled by cryptoticker.io on 29 October 2026. It is based on the price data of the twenty-five largest cryptocurrencies by market value, twenty of them excluding stablecoins.

What the number of gainers says about a wave of selling

When only four out of twenty coins stay in the green during a sell-down, that is a broad decline and not a rotation between individual projects. In a situation like that most prices move in the same direction, because leveraged positions are closed by force. The exceptions are what makes it interesting. They are no basis for a buy tip, but they show which parts of the market are currently being priced differently.

Hyperliquid has a trigger of its own here: a report about planned regulated US perpetuals was already in the market on Thursday. For TRX, no such single trigger has surfaced so far.

Why TRON behaves differently from a layer-1 token as a stablecoin blockchain

A look at stablecoin balances puts the difference in context. We placed the eight blockchains with the largest stablecoin supply side by side. Ethereum holds around 140.7 billion dollars in stablecoins, TRON about 93.6 billion, Solana a good 15 billion and BSC around 13 billion. That makes TRON the second-largest settlement network for dollar-pegged tokens after Ethereum. These figures were also compiled by cryptoticker.io on 29 October 2026, based on supply volumes on the eight largest blockchains.

No price target follows from that, but a factual placement does: the balances that flowed out sat on the Ethereum blockchain. On the data documented so far, the TRON network was not involved in the incident. For anyone interested in who stands behind the individual dollar-pegged tokens and how their backing is verified, the overview of stablecoins and their issuers sets out the detail.

A layer-1 token is the base asset of a standalone blockchain, used to pay for transactions and to secure the network. TRX fills that role, but most of the activity on TRON consists of transfers of dollar-pegged tokens rather than trading in TRX itself. That makes demand for TRX less dependent on the risk appetite of speculators and more dependent on payment flows.

629 million dollars in one hour: how a liquidation wave builds

In the hour after the first outflows, around 629 million dollars of positions were closed by force across the whole crypto market, almost entirely on the buy side, according to figures from PANews cited by FinanceFeeds. Running numbers on these forced closures are kept by CoinGlass.

A liquidation is the forced closing of a leveraged position by the exchange as soon as the collateral posted is no longer sufficient. Because that involves automatic selling, every liquidation pushes the price further and sets off the next one. This chain reaction is called a long squeeze when the positions affected are mostly those betting on rising prices.

That is exactly why an incident at a single exchange moves prices across the entire market within an hour. It takes no selling at all from investors who hold without leverage. It is enough for enough leveraged positions to break at the same time.

Funding rate and perpetuals: leverage decides how long a position lasts

A perpetual is a futures contract without an expiry date, used to bet on the price of a coin without owning it. To keep its price from drifting away from the spot price, the two sides pay each other a balancing fee at fixed intervals, the funding rate. When it is clearly positive, buyers are paying sellers, and the balance in the market is one-sided.

On a night like this, that is the decisive mechanism. Anyone working with ten-times leverage loses their collateral at a price decline of around ten percent. NEAR, down almost 14 percent, was well beyond that threshold on Thursday; Bitcoin, down just under 3 percent, well short of it. That is why smaller coins regularly show two to four times the Bitcoin move in a sell-down.

What a stop is worth on a night like this

A sell threshold only protects for as long as the exchange can serve it. In the minutes of the sharpest movement, orders are sometimes filled well below the level set. If you use leverage, build that gap into your numbers instead of relying on the level. Which venues are worth considering for futures without an expiry date differs above all in running costs and in the maximum leverage allowed.

The consequences for price and custody after an exchange incident

For investors in Germany, this evening has two sides. One is the price, the other the question of where your own holdings sit. The two are connected, because an incident at an exchange first affects the balances held there.

On current information, customer funds at Binance are not affected according to the company, and the exchange is investigating the matter. Tether and Circle have frozen large parts of the stablecoins that were moved, which is technically possible with dollar-pegged tokens because the issuer can disable individual addresses. With Bitcoin or Ether, that option does not exist.

That gives stablecoins a property which rarely stands out in calm times: the ability to freeze helps in the event of damage, but it also means that a central party can dispose of individual balances. For placing the various issuers, what counts most is who issues the token in question and how its backing is documented.

Hot wallet and cold wallet: the difference counts in an attack

A cold wallet keeps the keys on a device that is not connected to the internet. Exchanges therefore hold only the share of balances they need for day-to-day operations in hot wallets, and the rest in cold storage. On the data available, Thursday's incident affected hot wallets only.

For private holdings the same logic applies one size down. Coins that sit on an exchange are available for trading and depend on that provider's security model. Coins on your own device are slower to reach and depend on the recovery words being stored safely and legibly. The devices for that differ above all in how the recovery words are generated and displayed.

How much has to stay on the exchange

The question has no blanket answer, but it can be ordered. Anyone who trades regularly needs a trading balance. Anyone who holds for years does not. The majority sit in between, and for them the most useful figure is not a percentage. It is the sum whose loss would not upset their own plan.

MiCA registration: these duties apply to crypto exchanges in Europe

MiCA is the EU regulation on markets in crypto-assets, in force since 2024, which requires providers to hold a licence and meet ongoing duties. These include the separation of customer funds from the firm's own assets, rules on custody and reporting duties towards the supervisor. In Germany, BaFin supervises licensed providers.

In practice that means a provider licensed in the EU has to keep customer balances separate and report a security incident to the supervisor. That prevents no attack, but it changes which duties apply afterwards and who can demand information. Which venues can show an EU licence is set out in the overview of crypto exchanges.

One-year holding period: how the tax office treats price gains

For investors in Germany, crypto-assets held as private assets carry a holding period of one year. Anyone who holds for more than twelve months and then sells pays no income tax on the gain. Within the year the gain is taxable, with an exemption limit of 1,000 euros per calendar year for all private disposals taken together.

On a night like this, that is more than a footnote. Selling into the move can trigger a taxable gain even though the position has been held for months. Conversely, losses within the one-year window can be offset against gains from other private disposals. What matters is the unbroken record of purchase and sale dates per unit.

Why the order of purchases counts

Anyone who has bought the same cryptocurrency several times needs a rule for which units they are selling. In Germany the order of acquisition is the usual one, so the units bought first are sold first. With many small purchases that is barely traceable by hand, which is why a running record per purchase pays off.

Energy and bandwidth: how TRON replaces transaction fees

TRON works with two consumption measures instead of a plain fee per transfer. Bandwidth covers the data volume of a transaction, energy the computing power for contracts on the blockchain. Anyone who stakes TRX in the network is allocated both and pays correspondingly less for transfers.

This model explains part of the demand for TRX that has nothing to do with speculation: anyone moving dollar-pegged tokens at scale stakes TRX to bring running costs down. Holdings of that kind are not sold at every market move. How large that share is exactly cannot be cleanly separated out from public data, which is why no figure is given here.

TRX price: the levels that carry it up and down

TRX trades at around 0.35 dollars. On the upside, the next orientation sits in the area of the highs of recent weeks; on the downside, the zone the Thursday move started from, at about 0.33 dollars. These levels are orientation and not a forecast; they lose their meaning as soon as the situation in the wider market shifts.

The connection matters more than the single figure: the lead TRX built on this night rests on no documented single report. It rests on the coin being sold less than the rest in a broad sell-down. Relative strength of that kind holds for as long as demand from payment flows carries it, and ends when that demand fades.

What is worth watching over the coming days

Three things decide whether this continues: whether Binance gives a conclusive account of the matter and withdrawals run without restriction, whether the frozen stablecoin balances are returned, and whether the stablecoin supply on TRON keeps growing. None of these points is settled today.

TRX at 0.35 dollars: the lead holds only while USDT keeps flowing in

1. Work out how much of your holdings sits on an exchange and how much you hold yourself. For the second part, the comparison of hardware wallets shows which devices differ and in what.
2. Look at your leveraged positions, if you hold any, and work out at which price decline the collateral would be used up. The costs of the individual venues are set out in the overview of perp DEXs.
3. Record the purchase and sale dates of these days in full, so that the one-year window can be traced later. The tools for that are set out in the comparison of crypto tax software and portfolio trackers.

(As of October 29, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Memecoin influencer Mika posted the private key of her dev wallet on X on Wednesday evening, instead of the contract address of her new coin Free Mika (MIKA). The key went public at 17:40:09 UTC, and with it anyone could empty the wallet. 81 seconds later, 500.4 million MIKA had been pulled out, half of the entire supply, and seven seconds after that they were sold for 376.9 SOL, roughly $38,000. The price fell 99%. Every one of these steps is public on the Solana blockchain, and the timeline below links each transaction.

Mika goes by @mikadontlouz on X, has 126,600 followers and is a well-known voice from the so-called trenches. That is what the scene calls the corner of Solana where thousands of new memecoins launch every day on Pump.fun, many of them gone within minutes. Less than half an hour later, her next coin was already live. This has little to do with investing: whoever buys here is betting on being faster than the bots.

It all happened in an already weak week. A day later the Binance hack unsettled the whole market, and Solana fell below $100. On Wednesday evening one SOL still cost about $101; on Friday at 01:44 UTC it was $93.94, according to CoinMarketCap.

In the German-speaking scene, trader Smart Money Crypto made the story widely known, and his post has more than 255,000 views. The clip in it is not from Wednesday, though. It comes from the livestream of the launch of Mika's first coin, WIN, in September 2025, and shows how these launches are staged: a party, people in Guy Fawkes masks, almost 1,900 viewers on the stream.

Free Mika: The Timeline From the Post to the Sale

The sequence can be traced second by second on the blockchain. The on-chain account Imperator pieced it together first, and the figures below come straight from the transactions. All times are UTC on October 28.

At a SOL price of about $101, the sale brought in roughly $38,000. The first Free Mika, which peaked at a market value of $1.61 million on Pump.fun, stood at about $7,700 in the early hours of Friday.

Private Key vs. Contract Address: The House Key, Not the House Number

A coin's contract address is public. It is the house number everyone uses to find and buy the coin; on Solana it is usually 44 characters long, and on Pump.fun it ends in "pump". The private key is the house key to the wallet: whoever knows it can move everything inside, and nobody in the world can reverse that. An exported Solana key is 87 or 88 characters long, about twice the length of an address. How the two fit together is explained in our guide Private key and public key.

Mika's dev wallet held half of the one billion token supply. The wallet that grabbed it was no random visitor: it had already bought MIKA three and a half minutes before the post. That fits a sniper bot that automatically buys new launches from well-known accounts while scanning X for posted keys. Who is behind it, the blockchain does not show.

Durable Nonce: Why the Dev Wallet Was Locked After 148 Seconds

The last step is the most unusual one. At 17:42:37 UTC, 67 seconds after the outflow, the dev wallet was converted into a so-called durable nonce account: 80 bytes of storage and a new authority. A durable nonce is really a tool for signing transactions in advance and sending them later. Here it had a different effect: only the nonce authority can withdraw SOL from a nonce account, and the leaked key alone no longer does the job.

The conversion also requires the private key. Whoever runs it one minute after the outflow had the tool ready beforehand. Smart Money Crypto reads it as someone locking the door behind them so that no second bot could follow. Hardly anyone does that by hand and by chance.

Second Free Mika Coin: A Relaunch in Under Half an Hour

Smart Money Crypto describes what came next in detail: Mika opened a Space on X, cried and yelled at affiliates of the trading platform Axiom. She did not want attention, she said, she wanted a million dollars. Less than half an hour after the key post, the next coin was on her profile, again called Free Mika, and by 18:08 UTC it was already trading on PumpSwap.

According to Solana creator Elizacreatez, trackers showed four linked wallets holding 94% of the new supply, with Mika herself holding about half. Per Coinspeaker, the coin ran to a market value of about $1.5 million within minutes and was below $300,000 an hour later. In the early hours of Friday it stood at about $290,000, according to DexScreener. On top of that, more than a dozen copycats appeared on Pump.fun the same evening, with names like "The Private key" and "I LOST MY KEYS!!!".

Mika's Private Key Leak: Accident or Staged?

On X, the scene split into three camps. The biggest one is laughing. The second does not believe a word: Solana trader FabianoSolana called the loss staged, claimed the wallet had been turned into a nonce account before the post, and pointed out that Mika's first coin, WIN, had already made six figures. The blockchain refutes the part about the prepared wallet: the conversion came 148 seconds after the post. The third camp wants to keep going. Other influencers pushed Mika in the Space to relaunch the coin, paired with their own memecoins.

Mika herself now points to exactly this timeline. She shared Imperator's post and wrote overnight into Friday that it was the only account posting the actual blockchain proof while everyone else farmed engagement.

What is proven: a bot was in the wallet after 81 seconds, a second coin was live less than half an hour later, and there again a handful of wallets held almost everything. Whether it was an accident or staged, the blockchain proves neither. In both rounds, the bill went to the buyers who trusted an influencer launch.

Influencer Memecoins: One Wallet With 50% Is the Risk

Free Mika joins a long list of celebrity and influencer coins, from TRUMP and MELANIA to LIBRA, that lost most of their value after launch. The pattern is almost always the same: a famous name brings in buyers, a small group holds a large share of the supply, and liquidity is thin. Anyone buying a coin where half the supply sits in a single wallet is betting that this one wallet stays clean. You can find more on the opportunities and traps in our meme coin overview, and why the key is usually the way in for crypto hacks in 2026 is covered in Stolen keys beat code flaws.

For your own wallet, the simplest rule in the scene applies: your private key never goes into a text field anyone else can read. If you hold larger amounts, keep the key on a device that never gives it out. Suitable models are listed in our hardware wallet comparison.

This article is not investment advice.

Update 02:30 UTC: Binance puts the damage at $6.3 billion. In an official announcement Binance estimates the total impact at around $6.3 billion, of which about $3 billion is frozen on-chain. According to the initial investigation, a DevOps engineer's laptop was compromised, which let the attacker access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. Binance says it has found no evidence of a private key leak. The exchange will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and company funds; deposits and withdrawals remain suspended, and an updated proof of reserves will follow.

What really happened in the Binance hack? Our analysis of the blockchain data shows: on October 29, 2026 an attacker took control of the hot wallet "Binance 14" with 50 simultaneously submitted signatures and drained about $2.7 billion within seconds. Binance confirmed the hack overnight and says it will cover all losses. According to our measurements and investigators, more than $2.83 billion is frozen, and the attacker is left mainly with 197,460 ETH. Here is what we verified ourselves, what the key voices on X say and where this is heading.

The minute-by-minute account is in our timeline with live ticker, the news itself in our Binance hack report.

Hack or internal transfer? The first debate of the night

In the first hour it was not clear there had been an attack at all. Analyst Simba considered a planned migration between Binance wallets possible: the destination was freshly created and had not moved the funds at first.

BREAKING: $2.7 BILLION JUST MOVED OUT OF BINANCE IN 24 SECONDS. Everyone is screaming HACK. But the onchain evidence tells a VERY different story.

Simba (@Simba_crpt) October 29, 2026

The theory did not last. The address behind the attack was funded with 0.1 ETH from the mixer Tornado Cash, the wallet was bound to an outside contract, and shortly after the attacker began spreading tokens across dozens of addresses. At 00:04 UTC Binance co-founder Yi He confirmed the hack:

User funds are safe. Binance will cover all hacking losses. Deposits and withdrawals are temporarily suspended while our team conducts security checks, freezes funds, and works with law enforcement.

Yi He (@heyibinance) October 30, 2026

How the attack worked: 50 signatures, one hit

Security firm Blockaid found the decisive technical trick, and we verified it directly on-chain. The attack transaction is of the new type 4, which since the Pectra upgrade lets a wallet hand its control to a smart contract via EIP-7702. It contains exactly 50 such authorizations, all for the Binance 14 wallet, all pointing to the same attacker contract, for nonces 18,914,775 to 18,914,824 (transaction on Etherscan).

The attacker didn't know Binance 14's live nonce. So they sprayed 50 EIP-7702 auths (18914775-18914824) in one type-4 tx. Only 1 of 50 was a hit.

Blockaid (@blockaid_) October 29, 2026

The background: such an authorization is only valid for the nonce the wallet has at the moment of inclusion. Because the hot wallet kept sending withdrawals, the attacker did not know the nonce and fired 50 authorizations at once. One landed. More important is what 50 authorizations require: each must be signed with the wallet's key. The attacker could therefore produce signatures for Binance 14. How he gained that access is for Binance's announced post-mortem to explain. The delegation has since been removed: according to our query at 01:20 UTC the wallet's code is empty again.

Where is the money? Our tally at 01:30 UTC

About $2.7 billion left the two Binance wallets on Ethereum, plus smaller amounts on other chains. Most of it is blocked, but not all. Binance itself now puts the total impact across all chains at around $6.3 billion, about $3 billion of it frozen; the breakdown below shows what is visible on Ethereum.

Update: This brings the total frozen for the Binance exploit so far to over $2.83B

ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 30, 2026

The Aave trick: why frozen USDT still yielded Ether

The attacker knew Tether could freeze. Within three minutes he supplied 60 million USDT to the lending protocol Aave and borrowed 19,762 wETH, about $45 million. Shortly after, Tether froze the address, and 46 minutes later Aave froze the affected markets. The frozen USDT now sit as collateral on Aave, the borrowed Ether are with the attacker. He will never repay them.

Aave protocol will be fine. The hacker supplied 60M USDT and borrowed 19,762 wETH (~44.9M$) in 3 minutes, before Tether froze their address and before the Aave Guardian froze the Aave V3 Core reserves (46 min later).

Marc Zeller (@mzeller) October 29, 2026

Aave can absorb it, Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative explains: the position is overcollateralized and will be liquidated automatically once Ether rises about 4% to roughly $2,365. The debt equals 0.9% of the protocol's wETH reserves. A rising Ether price would, of all things, liquidate the attacker's loan.

More on the Binance hack

• Binance hack: how the hot wallet was drained
• Live ticker and timeline: the crypto crash after the hack
• USDT frozen: what Tether and Circle really blocked
• Binance withdrawals: which networks are paused
• Is this the end? Three scenarios for Bitcoin
• Ethereum: the hacker sits on 195,000 ETH
• Solana below $100: is $80 next?
• BNB crash: another FTT moment?
• The biggest crypto hacks in history
• How to short Bitcoin in the crash
• Why is crypto down today?

What the key voices on X are saying

• Yi He, Binance: user funds safe, Binance covers all losses, deposits and withdrawals temporarily suspended, full post-mortem to follow.
• ZachXBT, investigator: more than $2.83 billion frozen.
• Blockaid, security firm: 50 EIP-7702 authorizations in one transaction, one hit. Verified by us on-chain.
• Marc Zeller, Aave Chan Initiative: the attacker borrowed 19,762 wETH before the freeze, manageable for Aave.
• Simba, analyst: initially considered an internal transfer possible, overtaken by Binance's confirmation.
• Bala, commentator: wrote the attacker "walked away" with the Aave trick. True for $45 million, not for the billions.

Our conclusion: where the Binance hack is heading

• For customers: Binance has pledged to cover all losses, and the frozen share makes that credible. The key question is when deposits and withdrawals resume. Until then: patience, and no links from messages promising refunds. Which exchanges hold a licence is shown in our comparison of regulated exchanges. We track the status in Binance withdrawals after the hack.
• For the loot: of about $2.7 billion, more than $2.8 billion across all chains is blocked. On Ethereum the attacker is left mainly with the 197,460 ETH, the Ether from Aave and distributed smaller tokens, roughly $600 million in total. Going by Binance's figures of $6.3 billion in damage and about $3 billion frozen, however, more than $3 billion across all chains is still unaccounted for; where it sits is the open question of the coming days. He will have to launder it over days and weeks, and every move is public.
• For Ethereum: the 197,460 ETH remain an overhang. At the same time a 4% price rise would liquidate the attacker's Aave position. What it means for the price is in Ethereum crash: the Binance hacker sits on 195,000 ETH.
• For the industry: the attack shows a new pattern. Whoever can produce signatures for a wallet needs, thanks to EIP-7702, a single transaction to sweep everything. Exchanges will have to tighten their signing systems and the approval of such delegations.

We keep monitoring the addresses and will update this analysis as funds move or Binance publishes its post-mortem. This article is not investment advice.

Etherscan records show wallets tied to the suspected Binance hack swapping freezable stablecoins for Ethereum on decentralized exchanges.

An on-chain tally puts the suspected Binance drain at $5.57 billion across three blockchains, as Tether and Circle froze $1.8 billion.

Coinbase reported third-quarter net income of $719 million, driven largely by gains on its crypto holdings, as revenue held flat at $1.22 billion.

Chrome's new autofill uses Google's Gemini AI to search your Gmail for order numbers, tracking details, and flight bookings and fill them into web forms. It is rolling out in the U.S.

Polymarket restricted trading and paused relayer actions as users report funds leaving their accounts. A suspected attacker wallet holds about $2.65 million in POL, per Arkham data.

Elon Musk has predicted that superintelligent AI agents will eventually start stealing cryptocurrencies for themselves, reacting to the massive $6.3 billion Binance hack.

Binance expects to resume withdrawals within the next 48 hours following a massive $6.3 billion hack, which investigators have linked to North Korean hackers.

HYPE, XRP, ADA and ZEC show mixed technical signals on October 30, with buyers pushing higher in two markets and sellers still in control of the others.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is investigating a potentially record-breaking security breach after blockchain analysts detected nearly $6 billion in suspicious outflows across multiple networks.

Hackers are using fake ChatGPT and Claude desktop apps to secretly install cryptocurrency mining malware, according to cybersecurity researchers at Check Point Research.

TLDR

• Reddit stock plunges 16.67% after hours despite 53% revenue growth to $895 million.
• Reddit reports $283 million in net income as RDDT shares tumble to $108 after hours.
• Reddit revenue jumps 53% as advertising sales climb 54% to $847 million in Q3 2026.
• Reddit stock slides despite 74% net income growth and nearly doubled free cash flow.
• Reddit shares drop after earnings despite strong profits, cash reserves, and S&P 500 inclusion.

Reddit (RDDT) shares fell 3.79% to $129.60 at market close before plunging 16.67% to $108.00 after hours. The decline followed the company’s third-quarter 2026 results, which showed strong revenue growth and higher profits. However, the after-hours sell-off pushed the stock lower despite improvements across several financial measures.

Reddit, Inc., RDDT

Reddit Stock Falls After Third-Quarter Earnings

Reddit reported $895 million in third-quarter revenue, representing a 53% increase from $585 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, net income rose 74% to $283 million, compared with $163 million during the same period in 2025. Despite these gains, the stock declined sharply after regular trading, extending its losses in after-hours dealings.

The company generated $847 million in advertising revenue, up 54% year-over-year, while other revenue increased 35% to $48 million. Additionally, international revenue climbed 67% to $176 million, outpacing the 50% increase in United States revenue. The United States contributed $719 million, accounting for most of Reddit’s quarterly sales.

Reddit’s gross margin reached 91.5%, improving from 91.0% in the previous year’s quarter. Furthermore, diluted earnings per share increased 75% to $1.40, compared with $0.80 a year earlier. Basic earnings per share also climbed 69% to $1.47, reflecting stronger profitability during the quarter.

Reddit Earnings Show Strong Cash Flow and Profitability

Reddit reported adjusted EBITDA of $402 million, an increase of 70% from $236 million in the prior-year quarter. Consequently, its adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 44.9%, compared with 40.3% in 2025. These results reflected higher earnings alongside continued revenue expansion across the platform’s business.

Operating cash flow increased to $364 million from $185 million, representing growth of approximately 96% year-over-year. Meanwhile, free cash flow reached $363 million, nearly doubling from $183 million during the same period last year. The company also reported capital expenditures of just $1 million, equivalent to 0.1% of quarterly revenue.

Reddit ended September with $3.03 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. In addition, fully diluted shares outstanding totaled 206.3 million, down 0.3% from the previous quarter. The company also repurchased approximately 670,000 Class A shares for $100 million at an average price of $149.81.

Reddit’s S&P 500 Inclusion Adds to Company Developments

Reddit’s addition to the S&P 500 marked a significant development during the quarter. The inclusion highlighted the company’s position among major publicly traded United States companies following its financial and business growth. However, the latest share-price decline showed that strong quarterly figures did not prevent selling pressure after the results.

The company’s advertising business remained the primary revenue driver, contributing $847 million to total quarterly sales. Moreover, international revenue growth exceeded domestic growth, indicating broader expansion beyond the United States market. Higher net income, improved margins, and stronger cash generation also strengthened Reddit’s reported financial performance.

Despite these positive figures, RDDT fell from its $129.60 closing price to $108.00 in after-hours trading. That move represented an additional decline of 16.67% following the regular-session loss of 3.79%. Reddit’s third-quarter results therefore presented a clear contrast between substantial financial growth and a sharp negative market reaction.

The post Reddit, Inc. (RDDT) Stock: Drops Despite 74% Net Income Growth and $895 Million Revenue appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Intel stock plunges 16.82% after hours despite 78% growth in data center and AI revenue.
• Intel posts $16.5 billion in Q3 revenue, but shares slide sharply after earnings.
• Intel data center revenue jumps 78% as PC weakness weighs on its stock outlook.
• Intel Foundry revenue surges 58%, while GAAP earnings fall 18% in the third quarter.
• Intel stock drops to $76.58 after hours despite stronger revenue and profit margins.

Intel (INTC) stock dropped 3.62% to $92.07 at market close before plunging 16.82% to $76.58 in after-hours trading. The sharp decline followed the company’s third-quarter 2026 earnings report, which showed stronger revenue and substantial growth in data center operations. However, weakening PC demand and lower GAAP earnings added pressure despite improvements across several business segments.

Intel Corp., INTC

Intel Stock Falls After Third-Quarter Earnings Report

Intel reported third-quarter revenue of $16.5 billion, representing a 21% increase from $13.7 billion a year earlier. Meanwhile, the company generated $5.1 billion in cash from operations, reflecting its financial performance during the quarter. Despite higher revenue and improved operating margins, the stock suffered a sharp after-hours decline following the results.

Intel recorded GAAP net income attributable to the company of $3.3 billion, down 18% from $4.1 billion in the previous year. Diluted GAAP earnings per share fell 33% to $0.60 from $0.90 during the same period. However, non-GAAP net income increased 169% to $2.8 billion, while non-GAAP diluted earnings per share climbed 126% to $0.52.

The company’s GAAP gross margin reached 43.0%, compared with 38.2% a year earlier, marking an improvement of 4.8 percentage points. Additionally, its non-GAAP gross margin rose to 44.1% from 40.0%, while non-GAAP operating margin increased to 19.6%. These improvements indicated stronger operating performance, although the decline in GAAP earnings presented a different picture.

Data Center and AI Revenue Jumps 78%

Intel’s Data Center and AI division generated $7.3 billion in third-quarter revenue, marking a 78% increase from the previous year. The segment delivered one of the company’s strongest growth contributions as demand for computing capacity expanded across data center operations. The division became a major contributor to Intel’s overall revenue growth during the quarter.

Total Intel Products revenue reached $15.4 billion, representing a 22% increase compared with the third quarter of 2025. The Client Computing and Physical AI Group generated $8.1 billion, down 5% year over year. This contrast highlighted the growing importance of data center products as Intel faced weaker conditions in its traditional PC business.

Intel Foundry reported $6.7 billion in revenue, an increase of 58% from the previous year. Revenue from the All Other category declined 30% to $0.7 billion, and intersegment eliminations reduced reported consolidated revenue. After these adjustments, Intel recorded total net revenue of $16.5 billion for the quarter.

PC Slowdown Adds Pressure to Intel’s Outlook

Intel identified weaker PC market conditions as a continuing challenge, with the slowdown expected to persist through at least the first half of 2027. The company also highlighted strong demand for its Xeon processors and the need to increase supply. Therefore, production capacity and product availability remain important factors in its ability to meet customer demand.

Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan emphasized execution, manufacturing capacity and process technology as priorities for the business. Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner also highlighted the quarter’s revenue, gross margin and earnings performance against company guidance. Management’s outlook pointed to continued PC weakness alongside opportunities across Intel’s broader product portfolio.

Intel’s latest results revealed a clear divide between accelerating data center revenue and declining PC-related sales. Although total revenue increased 21% and Intel Foundry expanded 58%, GAAP net income and diluted earnings per share declined year over year. The subsequent after-hours sell-off showed that strong segment growth did not prevent a sharp negative stock reaction following the earnings announcement.

The post Intel (INTC) Stock: Plunges Despite 78% Data Center and AI Revenue Growth appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Sandisk stock rebounds 2.87% after hours as data center revenue jumps 61%.
• Sandisk posts $11.03 billion in revenue as quarterly earnings surge 378% year over year.
• Sandisk announces an 8-for-1 stock split as shares recover after market close.
• Sandisk forecasts Q2 revenue of up to $12.6 billion after strong quarterly growth.
• Sandisk repurchases $5 billion in shares as data center demand drives strong results.

Sandisk Corporation (SNDK) shares fell 5.32% to $1,330.05 at market close before recovering 2.87% to $1,368.28 after hours. The moves followed the company’s fiscal first-quarter results, which showed strong revenue growth and higher earnings. Additionally, Sandisk announced an eight-for-one stock split and issued second-quarter guidance above its first-quarter revenue.

Sandisk Corporation, SNDK

Sandisk Stock Faces Mixed Trading as Earnings Show Strong Growth

Sandisk reported fiscal first-quarter 2027 revenue of $11.031 billion, representing a 23% increase from the previous quarter. Furthermore, revenue climbed 378% year over year from $2.308 billion, reflecting substantial growth across its business segments. The company also recorded significant earnings growth as demand for storage products strengthened.

GAAP net income reached $8.101 billion, compared with $6.903 billion in the preceding quarter. Meanwhile, diluted earnings per share increased 20% sequentially to $52.60, while non-GAAP diluted earnings per share reached $49.51. Non-GAAP net income totaled $7.624 billion, marking a 24% increase from the previous quarter.

Sandisk also improved its profitability during the reporting period as gross margins expanded across its operations. GAAP gross margin reached 85.0%, compared with 84.6% in the previous quarter. Additionally, non-GAAP gross margin increased to 85.1%, while non-GAAP operating income rose 25% to $8.871 billion.

Data Center Revenue Jumps 61% as Storage Demand Strengthens

Sandisk’s data center business delivered one of the strongest results during fiscal first-quarter 2027. The segment generated $4.802 billion in revenue, representing a 61% increase from $2.977 billion in the previous quarter. This performance highlighted the growing contribution of data center storage to the company’s overall business.

The edge segment generated $5.832 billion, increasing 7% from $5.432 billion in the preceding quarter. However, consumer revenue declined 29% sequentially to $397 million from $556 million. These contrasting results showed that data center and edge operations drove growth while consumer demand remained weaker.

Year-over-year comparisons also highlighted the scale of Sandisk’s revenue expansion across its major markets. Edge revenue increased 320% from $1.387 billion, while data center revenue rose substantially from $269 million. Consumer revenue, however, fell 39% from $652 million during the same period.

Sandisk Announces 8-for-1 Stock Split and Issues Q2 Guidance

Sandisk announced an eight-for-one forward stock split alongside its quarterly results, aiming to make shares more accessible. Under the plan, shareholders of record on November 9, 2026, will receive seven additional shares for every share held. The company expects to issue the additional shares after market close on November 19, 2026.

Trading on a split-adjusted basis is expected to begin at market open on November 20, 2026. However, the split will not change Sandisk’s overall market capitalization or shareholders’ proportional ownership. The company also intends to improve employee access to its stock through its employee stock purchase plan.

Sandisk expects fiscal second-quarter 2027 revenue to range between $12.2 billion and $12.6 billion. Additionally, management projects non-GAAP diluted earnings per share between $55.00 and $57.00 on a pre-split basis. The guidance points to further sequential growth following the company’s strong first-quarter performance.

Sandisk also continued its capital return program through substantial share repurchases during the quarter. The company repurchased approximately 3.2 million shares for $5 billion during the reporting period. Across the past two fiscal quarters, Sandisk repurchased six million shares, representing approximately 4% of its total outstanding shares.

Sandisk combined strong quarterly results with a significant expansion in data center revenue and a planned stock split. Its second-quarter revenue forecast also indicates expectations for continued business growth. The upcoming split will adjust the share count and per-share price without changing the company’s underlying market value.

The post Sandisk Corporation (SNDK) Stock: Data Center Revenue Jumps 61% as Company Unveils 8-for-1 Split appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• ADT stock jumps 33.20% to $9.87 as Thrive Holdings announces a $7.6B buyout deal.
• ADT shares hit a five-year high as Thrive Holdings offers $10 per share in cash.
• ADT stock rallies toward $10 after a $7.6 billion deal to take the company private.
• Thrive Holdings agrees to buy ADT at a 45.6% premium, sending shares sharply higher.
• ADT stock surges as OpenAI-backed Thrive Holdings targets a major home security takeover.

ADT Inc. shares surged 33.20% to $9.87 after Thrive Holdings agreed to acquire the home security company for $7.6 billion. The all-cash transaction offers shareholders $10 per share and would take ADT private. The announcement drove the stock toward its highest closing level since August 2021.

ADT Inc., ADT

Thrive Holdings Agrees to Acquire ADT for $7.6 Billion

Thrive Holdings agreed to purchase ADT in a transaction that values the home security provider at approximately $7.6 billion. Under the agreement, Thrive will pay $10 in cash for each outstanding ADT share. The acquisition would remove ADT from public markets once the transaction closes and the company completes the required procedures.

The proposed $10 offer represents a 45.6% premium over ADT’s closing price on October 27. This premium provides shareholders with a defined cash value for their shares under the proposed transaction. ADT’s market price climbed to $9.87, bringing the stock closer to the agreed acquisition price.

The latest rally lifted ADT shares by $2.46, representing a daily gain of 33.20%. The stock’s move also placed it on track for its strongest closing level since August 2021. The acquisition announcement became the main driver of the sharp increase in ADT’s share price.

OpenAI-Backed Thrive Holdings Targets ADT’s Technology Capabilities

Thrive Holdings is a private capital group founded by Josh Kushner and backed by OpenAI. The company focuses on acquiring established businesses and strengthening their technology and artificial intelligence capabilities. Its strategy combines long-term ownership with investment in operational improvements across selected industries.

Thrive operates 75 businesses spanning accounting, information technology services, and the built environment. Its planned acquisition of ADT would expand its portfolio into the home security sector. The transaction would give Thrive control of a company with an established customer base and security service operations.

Thrive has identified technology and product development as key areas for ADT’s future growth. Its plans include improving customer service and providing security professionals with more useful information. These priorities could support changes to ADT’s products, internal systems, and service delivery after the acquisition closes.

ADT’s Home Security Business and the Take-Private Plan

ADT provides home security systems and related services to residential and commercial customers. Its operations include security monitoring, alarm systems, and connected technologies designed to protect properties. The company has built its position through a long operating history and a broad presence in the security market.

The proposed acquisition would shift ADT from public ownership to private control under Thrive Holdings. As a result, the company would operate outside the public stock market after completing the transaction. Private ownership could give Thrive greater flexibility to pursue long-term technology investments and operational changes without the same public-market reporting structure.

The announced agreement does not mean the acquisition has already closed. The transaction must proceed through its applicable closing procedures before Thrive can complete the purchase. Until completion, ADT remains publicly traded, and its shares may continue to trade around market expectations for the deal.

What the $10 Offer Means for ADT Shareholders

The proposed cash payment sets an acquisition price of $10 for each ADT share covered by the agreement. At $9.87, the stock traded just $0.13 below that offer price following the announcement. This narrow gap reflects the market price moving close to the announced cash consideration.

The offer premium also highlights the immediate impact of the takeover announcement on ADT’s valuation. Compared with the October 27 closing price, the proposed payment provides shareholders with a substantial premium. The final outcome depends on the transaction reaching completion under its agreed terms.

ADT’s next major milestone is the progress of the acquisition toward closing. Updates on required approvals, transaction conditions, and the expected completion timeline will help clarify the deal’s status. For now, Thrive Holdings’ $7.6 billion proposal marks a major ownership change for ADT and has driven a sharp rally in its shares.

The post ADT Inc. (ADT) Stock: Jumps 34% as Thrive Holdings Moves to Take Company Private appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• MRK Stock Jumps 3.84% as Merck Reports $18.1 Billion in Q3 2026 Revenue Growth
• Merck Stock Rises as KEYTRUDA Sales Hit $8.6 Billion and WINREVAIR Jumps 93%
• MRK Stock Climbs After Merck Raises 2026 Sales Forecast to 66.8B–67.3 Billion
• Merck Q3 Earnings Reveal 5% Revenue Growth Despite Declining Quarterly EPS in 2026
• MRK Stock Gains as Merck Advances Cancer Pipeline and Strengthens Its 2026 Outlook

Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) shares climbed 3.84% to $146.34 on October 29, gaining $5.41 during the trading session. The pharmaceutical company reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $18.1 billion, representing 5% growth compared with the previous year. Meanwhile, MRK advanced another 0.74% to $147.42 in after-hours trading as its financial results highlighted continued product demand and pipeline progress.

]\Merck & Co., Inc., MRK

Merck Stock Rises as Third-Quarter Revenue Reaches $18.1 Billion

Merck generated $18.085 billion in worldwide sales during the third quarter, up from $17.276 billion in 2025. Foreign exchange movements reduced reported growth, leaving revenue up 4% when excluding currency effects. However, purchasing patterns contributed approximately $550 million to pharmaceutical sales growth during the quarter.

The pharmaceutical division generated $16.268 billion, increasing 4% from the previous year. Growth came primarily from KEYTRUDA, WINREVAIR, GARDASIL, WELIREG, ENFLONSIA and the addition of OHTUVAYRE sales. Nevertheless, declining sales of JANUVIA, JANUMET, BRIDION and LAGEVRIO partly offset these gains.

Merck reported GAAP earnings per share of $2.04, down 12% from $2.32 a year earlier. Adjusted non-GAAP earnings per share fell 3% to $2.49 from $2.58 in the corresponding period. Both earnings measures included a one-time charge of $0.12 per share associated with a global licensing agreement with SciBrunch Therapeutics.

KEYTRUDA and WINREVAIR Drive Product Sales Growth

KEYTRUDA and KEYTRUDA QLEX generated combined sales of $8.601 billion, marking a 6% increase year over year. Demand increased across earlier-stage indications, including triple-negative breast cancer, cervical cancer, head and neck cancer, and bladder cancer. Additionally, metastatic indications, including urothelial cancer, contributed to stronger global demand, while KEYTRUDA QLEX generated $830 million.

WINREVAIR recorded sales of $694 million, up 93% from $360 million in the third quarter of 2025. Higher demand and favorable purchasing patterns supported growth in the United States, alongside launches in international markets. Europe and Japan contributed to the product’s expanding commercial performance.

GARDASIL and GARDASIL 9 sales rose 14% to $1.995 billion, supported by stronger US sales and favorable public-sector purchasing patterns. Meanwhile, sales of PROQUAD, M-M-R II and VARIVAX increased 7% to $730 million, reflecting higher demand in selected European markets. In contrast, JANUVIA and JANUMET sales dropped 39% to $380 million following generic competition after losing US market exclusivity.

Merck Advances Pipeline and Raises Full-Year 2026 Outlook

Merck presented pivotal Phase 3 oncology data at the 2026 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress, highlighting progress across its development pipeline. The company reported results from the TroFuse-005 trial evaluating sacituzumab tirumotecan in certain patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration accepted the related biologics license application for priority review.

Merck also presented Phase 3 findings from INTerpath-001, which evaluated intismeran autogene combined with KEYTRUDA as adjuvant treatment for resected stage IIB-IV melanoma. The company conducted the program in collaboration with Moderna, advancing its investigation of therapeutic cancer vaccines. Additionally, Merck reported positive Phase 2b results for tulisokibart in moderate-to-severe hidradenitis suppurativa and presented one-year BRUNELLO trial results for remigromig in adults with diabetic macular edema.

The company raised the midpoint of its full-year 2026 worldwide sales outlook and narrowed its forecast to 66.8billion-67.3 billion. Merck also narrowed its expected non-GAAP earnings-per-share range to 2.77-2.82, including the $0.12 SciBrunch-related charge. The updated outlook reflects continued commercial contributions from established medicines and newer products, alongside developments across its broader pharmaceutical pipeline.

Merck’s third-quarter results showed stronger revenue and substantial growth in WINREVAIR, although reported earnings declined year over year. The company’s raised annual sales outlook and advancing clinical programs added further context to MRK’s share-price gains on October 29.

The post Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Stock: Jumps 3.84% as Q3 2026 Revenue Rises 5% to $18.1 Billion appeared first on Blockonomi.

The broader crypto market was hit earlier today by the shocking and daring hack against the largest cryptocurrency exchange by market cap, in which bad actors, believed to be linked to the North Korean state, siphoned over $6 billion from the platform.

Such major news typically sends shockwaves across the entire market, which was indeed the case. For some reason, though, not all tokens were hit differently. Pi Network’s native asset is among the few exceptions.

What Happened in the Market

CryptoPotato reported earlier today that Binance fell victim to what became the biggest hack in the cryptocurrency industry in terms of USD value. Preliminary estimates showed that the total value of the loot sits at around $6.3 billion, while multiple service providers and blockchain partners said they managed to freeze about $3 billion on-chain at the time of the announcement.

Early investigations suggest the incident may have stemmed from a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop. The exchange said it had found no evidence of a wallet private-key leak, while on-chain sleuths identified the use of EIP-7702 authorizations, with 50 successfully signed ones in an attempt to match the wallet’s changing nonce.

Whatever the reason, the impact hit the entire market immediately. Bitcoin tanked from over $80,000 toward $76,000, while most altcoins followed suit. Expectedly, Binance’s own asset was hit hard, dumping by over 6% as of press time to $705. Nearly 240,000 traders were wrecked, with the total value of liquidated positions skyrocketing to over $1.5 billion daily. Roughly 90% of that amount came after the Binance attack.

PI Defies the Crash

Although over 90% of altcoins are deep in the red today, there are a few exceptions, and, perhaps to the surprise of some, Pi Network’s native token is in that category. The asset is actually up by almost 3% in the past day and sits above $0.078 as of press time.

Just yesterday, it had tanked to $0.075 before it shot up to almost $0.082, but the bears stepped in and pushed it south. Nevertheless, it rebounded from $0.076 and now trades around 10% higher than its all-time low, marked nearly four months ago at $0.07072.

As such, its market cap has climbed to more than $880 million on CMC, making it the 64th-largest digital asset by that metric. But perhaps most surprising is that there was no clear catalyst for its defiance today, unlike HYPE. The project’s latest major update came last week.

The post Pi Network’s PI Token Defies Market Crash Triggered by Binance Hack appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The Binance hack has given the crypto industry one of those moments when the memes, the money, and the uncomfortable questions all arrive at once.

Nikita Bier, X’s former head of product, didn’t hold back either. Taking a direct swipe at CZ, he wrote,

“The largest crypto exchange in the world just experienced the largest robbery in human history – and the person running it is a nomadic autistic man in Dubai posting “Funds are SAFU!” What a time to be alive.”

Meanwhile, Elon Musk said that “Everyday is Zeroday.”

Inside the Binance Hack

On October 29, Binance suffered a major security incident with an estimated impact of approximately $6.3 billion, according to the crypto exchange’s own update. On-chain investigations traced billions in unauthorized outflows across multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tron, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Avalanche. The important detail is that Binance’s preliminary investigation points towards a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which may have allowed the attacker to access a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.

Binance says it has found no evidence of a wallet private-key leak. Blockchain investigators also identified the use of EIP-7702 authorizations, with 50 signed authorizations submitted in an attempt to match the wallet’s changing nonce. One successfully matched, which allowed malicious code to execute against the affected wallet. The investigation is still ongoing, so the complete attack pathway has not yet been officially established.

Tether froze more than $1.567 billion in USDT, while Circle froze over $800 million in USDC in coordination with law enforcement. Arbitrum’s Security Council also intervened to freeze assets, alongside other token issuers. Binance’s reported frozen total has approached $3 billion, although the exact figure has changed as recovery efforts progressed. That still leaves a substantial amount to trace and recover.

CZ, who no longer runs Binance but remains a major shareholder, said the incident did look like a hack and expressed confidence that users would be fully covered. Co-CEO Yi He also confirmed that the crypto exchange would absorb the losses through its SAFU fund and company resources. Deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended while security checks were conducted, and Binance Alpha trading was also paused.

But the shock traveled well beyond Binance. Bitcoin briefly fell near $76,300, wiping out nearly $478.9 million in positions, 84.6% of which were longs. Ethereum wasn’t far behind, recording $363.5 million in liquidations, with long traders accounting for 83.5%, according to Crypto Patel’s estimates. Solana followed with $82.1 million, while XRP saw $38.1 million wiped out. HYPE was an interesting exception, with $31.3 million in liquidations and short positions taking the heavier hit.

DeFi felt the shockwave too. Aave, for instance, froze 175 markets across 16 networks on V3, along with another 117 markets on V4, as a precautionary measure. Kamino also paused SOL and BTC borrowing to limit potential exposure.

Same Hacker Behind Both Exploits?

ZachXBT has found a link between the Binance and Bitget exploits. He said that the stolen funds from both incidents ended up at the same wallet address after passing through THORChain. The popular blockchain investigator believes this points to the same attacker being behind both hacks.

The Bitget exploit was previously linked to North Korea-associated group TraderTraitor, which has also been connected to other incidents, including the Kelp DAO exploit. MistTrack also found that stolen TRX from the Binance hack moved through Bitget Wallet Swap Bridge to an address starting with 0xCd68. That wallet had previously been used by the Phemex hacker.

The post Binance Hit by a $6.3B Security Nightmare: Nikita Bier Mocks CZ, While ZachXBT Spots a Bigger Threat appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The XRP Ledger Foundation has added Flare Networks to its recommended validator list, recognizing the project’s role in the network’s infrastructure.

In a recent post on X, the Foundation said Flare aligns with the XRP Ledger’s core values and actively participates in its governance. It also acknowledged the project’s contributions to the wider ecosystem.

What the Validator Changes Mean for the XRP Ledger

The Foundation also removed Anodos Finance after the project requested its removal ahead of a planned validator shutdown by the end of October. It thanked the team for its contributions and cooperation with the XRP community.

Following these changes, the Foundation’s recommended list and Ripple’s corresponding list contain 35 matching validator keys. Both lists also include a validator manifest linked to a domain associated with Flare.

These recommended lists help server operators decide which validators to trust when configuring their Unique Node Lists (UNLs). A UNL identifies the validators a server relies on to reach agreement on new ledgers.

Beyond reaching consensus, validators also support network governance by voting on protocol amendments that change how the XRP Ledger operates. An amendment requires more than 80% support from trusted validators over two consecutive weeks to activate.

Flare’s Role in the XRP Ledger

Flare thanked the XRP Ledger Foundation and those who reviewed its application in a public response. The addition comes as the project develops services that connect XRP holders with decentralized finance applications.

These services include FXRP, which uses the FAssets system to bring XRP onto Flare, and Flare Smart Accounts. The latter allows users to access applications on Flare through XRPL wallets without transferring custody of their assets to a third party.

However, joining the recommended list does not automatically change every XRP Ledger server’s configuration. Server operators can still maintain custom Unique Node Lists (UNLs) rather than follow the Foundation’s or Ripple’s recommendations.

Validators also receive no XRP rewards directly from the protocol for participating in consensus. Instead, their role involves helping maintain network reliability and supporting decisions on protocol changes, without direct financial incentives from the ledger itself.

The post Flare Joins XRPL Validator List as Anodos Finance Exits appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Binance confirmed earlier today that it has become the latest victim of a major hack that, according to some other reports, has seen well over $6 billion drained from the platform.

This is by far the biggest hack in the crypto industry, which, as expected, led to a massive pullback in (almost) all digital assets.

Bitcoin led the way south, dumping to $76,350 for the first time since September 18. Recall that the asset challenged the $82,000 resistance just a day prior to the conclusion of the latest FOMC meeting.

The subsequent rejection pushed it toward $80,500 before the massive leg down to the aforementioned October low. It has rebounded since then and currently sits at just over $78,000.

The altcoins follow suit. Ethereum has tanked by 3% daily and is struggling below $2,250. BNB has slumped by more than 4% and sits at $715. XRP is down to $1.250. Interestingly, there are some alts in the green, including the two largest privacy tokens – ZEC and XMR.

HYPE, which is among Binance’s largest competitors, has skyrocketed by over 17% after some positive US developments we reported yesterday.

The total value of wrecked positions has skyrocketed to $1.52 billion on a 24-hour scale, with $1.36 billion coming after the Binance hack. Naturally, longs are responsible for the lion’s share.

BTC and ETH lead the pack with $482 million and $365 million in liquidated positions, respectively. Nearly 240,000 traders have been wiped out in the past day, while the largest single order was on Binance itself and was worth more than $11 million.

The post Bitcoin Crashes to $76K, $1.5B Liquidated After Crypto’s Biggest Hack appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, by means of both users and trading volume across the board, has been hacked.

Not a System Compromise

According to a recent announcement, the incident “may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.” Binance further revealed that they haven’t found any private key leak, pledging to share a detailed technical post-mortem as soon as the investigation is complete.

Binance’s initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified.

The estimated total impact sits at around $6.3B. We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~$3 billion frozen on-chain so far.
Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company’s funds. User funds are safe. We will also publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation is complete.

As an immediate precaution, Binance has:

– temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed;
– revoked the affected address authorisation;
– engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds.

Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly. We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice.

Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates. Please feel free to contact Binance Customer Support if you have any further questions.

https://t.co/ywB2mKFy0p

— Binance (@binance) October 30, 2026

The exchange further revealed that the total impact, at the time of this writing, sits at around $6.3 billion. That said, together with multiple service providers and blockchain partners, they’ve managed to freeze about $3 billion on-chain at the time of the announcement.

User Funds are SAFU

Both the official X account of Binance and Yi He confirmed that users needn’t worry about their funds and that the firm will cover all losses from the SAFU fund, as well as the company’s own funds.

That said, they’ve also implemented immediate precaution measures, including:

• temporary suspension of all deposits and withdrawals
• revoked affected address authorization
• engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds

Market-Wide Impact

The news immediately impacted the market, with Bitcoin dropping from above $81,000 to around $76,400 as the situation was unfolding.

Naturally, altcoins also sold off, with the entire market trading in the red since the news broke.

Data from Coinglass shows that the total liquidations on the derivatives market reached around $1.5 billion.

That said, many in the industry expressed optimism, outlining relatively modest declines amid what has clearly become the largest hack in recent years, impacting the biggest crypto exchange.

The post Binance Suffers $6.3 Billion Hack, Pledges to Cover All User Losses appeared first on CryptoPotato.