Cysic's pivot to AI inference highlights the adaptability required in tech industries as market demands shift, emphasizing resource optimization.

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The submission could pave the way for clearer DeFi regulations, potentially boosting market liquidity and attracting institutional investors.

The post Aave Labs, Kamino and Veda submit DeFi lending legal framework to the SEC appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Solana's RWA growth highlights the increasing adoption of tokenization, but sustainability and competition remain key challenges.

The post Solana’s RWA ecosystem surpasses $5B in total value appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The case could redefine copyright norms, impacting creator compensation and AI-related labor agreements across creative industries.

The post Hollywood backs New York Times in AI copyright battle against OpenAI, Microsoft appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The use of privacy mixers in laundering stolen crypto highlights ongoing challenges for regulators and the potential scrutiny on privacy tools.

The post Binance hacker moves $798K in SOL into Privacy Cash mixer appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Tether Holds 150,000 Bitcoin CEO Says, 50,000 More Than Its Reserve Report Shows

Tether holds about 150,000 bitcoin, worth some $11.5 billion at current prices, CEO Paolo Ardoino said, a figure that exceeds the holdings implied by the company’s latest reserve attestation by roughly 50,000 coins.

“We have give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” Ardoino said during his keynote at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, the city where Tether has run a bitcoin and stablecoin adoption program since 2022.

At that size the stack would rank Tether among the largest corporate holders of bitcoin, behind Strategy’s 848,517 BTC (as of Q3) and ahead of most public miners and treasury companies. 

Ardoino did not say where the additional coins sit, when they were bought or whether they belong to the stablecoin issuer or to Tether Investments, the arm that holds the group’s venture and equity positions. The remark does not indicate a new 50,000 BTC purchase.

Tether International’s third-quarter reserve report, published Oct. 30 with an attestation from BDO, lists $8.37 billion in bitcoin valued at $83,621.23 per coin as of Sept. 30. That implies about 100,060 BTC, up around 1,130 from the roughly 98,930 held at the end of June. Most of the quarter’s $2.57 billion rise in the bitcoin line came from price, not purchases.

The gap between the report and Ardoino’s figure has a plausible home. Tether has said the investments it makes from profits are kept apart from the reserves backing USDT, so coins held by Tether Investments would not appear in the attestation. 

Tether’s bitcoin exposure extends past its own wallets. It took full control of Twenty One Capital in May after buying out SoftBank, backs Adecoagro’s mining in Brazil, and runs mining and energy ventures in Latin America. Whether any of those positions sit inside the 150,000 figure is unclear.

Tether’s buffer built on bitcoin and gold

The disclosure lands as Tether’s balance sheet grows more dependent on the two assets. The Q3 report shows $191.45 billion in reserve assets against $183.50 billion in liabilities, an excess of $7.95 billion, up from $4.11 billion in June when the cushion had halved. 

Bitcoin at $8.37 billion and gold at about $19.1 billion together exceed that buffer several times over, so a sharp drop in either would eat into it. Treasury bills remain the bulk of reserves at about $132.4 billion.

Tether earned about $1.5 billion in the quarter and $4.5 billion in the first nine months. In August it completed its first independent audit with KPMG, ending years of reliance on attestations alone. Ardoino said at the forum that USDT has more than 730 million users and is adding about 30 million wallets a quarter.

Bitcoin traded near $77,600 Tuesday, which puts Tether’s stated holdings at $11.6 billion and its attested holdings at about $7.8 billion, below the Sept. 30 mark. The company has not said whether it plans to publish a breakdown of the coins held outside the reserve.

This post Tether Holds 150,000 Bitcoin CEO Says, 50,000 More Than Its Reserve Report Shows first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

TD Cowen: Democratic Congress Would Sink CLARITY Act for Two Years

A Democratic sweep of Congress would end the CLARITY Act’s chances for the next two years and sour the political climate for crypto, TD Cowen’s Washington analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote to Bitcoin Magazine and clients in an election-day note.

Seiberg wrote that TD Cowen agrees with polls and prediction markets that Democrats are likely to take both chambers, with the caveat that polls taken a month out, which were more mixed, tend to beat those taken on the eve of a vote. 

His conclusion for crypto is blunt: “Democrats will likely investigate Trump including his crypto entanglements. We see this as souring the political environment for crypto, which is why we do not expect the Clarity Act to pass over the next two years.”

The market structure bill passed the House 294-134 in July 2025 and failed a Senate cloture vote 49-50 on Sept. 15. If it does not pass before the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3, it dies and must be reintroduced. 

Seiberg added that crypto’s influence may shrink further in Congress if Sherrod Brown wins his Ohio Senate race, a contest the industry spent to lose.

In Congress, the Senate is the lever

The note treats Senate control as the bigger prize. A Democratic majority could block Trump’s nominees and use that power to force him to fill Democratic seats on the FDIC, SEC and CFTC, the three agencies at the center of crypto policy. 

It could pressure the White House to drop its effort to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve board. Trump could answer with acting chiefs, Seiberg wrote, but that risks handing authority to career staff, an outcome “Team Trump” does not want.

Senate control would elevate Sen. Elizabeth Warren to chair the Banking Committee. Seiberg sees room for populist bills such as interest rate caps, limits on bank buybacks and a government credit score, and he thinks Warren and Trump could find common ground on some of them.

Rep. Maxine Waters would take House Financial Services, with a focus on housing and tighter scrutiny of the FHFA.

“That means a focus on housing though we are dubious that she will find GOP support for down payment help and public housing renovations. FHFA scrutiny will increase,” the note read.

For banks, the note says the election changes little: regulators will keep easing capital, liquidity and tiering rules whichever party wins. Divided government does raise the odds of a shutdown or a debt-ceiling standoff, since Trump is expected to reject spending conditions Democrats attach.

Bitcoin on election day

Bitcoin traded near $77,500 Tuesday afternoon eastern time, up from a dip to $76,300 in the morning and about $2,000 below where it opened the month. The price has absorbed a record $6.34 billion Binance hack, two days of spot ETF outflows and a Fed that is leaning toward a December hike. 

Prediction markets on Kalshi give Democrats a 94% chance at the House and 74% at the Senate, so much of Seiberg’s scenario is in the price.

What is not priced is the lame-duck session. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a CLARITY negotiator, has said the bill could pass before January even if a Democratic Congress would not make it a priority after. That said, if it fails during that window, she doubts a Democratic-controlled Congress will make it a priority in the future.

According to various reports, crypto groups have spent more than $200 million on the cycle to avoid the outcome Seiberg now expects. The CFTC, for its part, moved without Congress on Tuesday, clearing equity perpetual futures for U.S. exchanges. If the Senate and Congress flips, that agency-by-agency approach, and who sits on those agencies, becomes the whole game.

This post TD Cowen: Democratic Congress Would Sink CLARITY Act for Two Years first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Binance Says $6.34 Billion Hack Began With Fake Job Interview 

The $6.34 billion theft from Binance began with a fake job interview and ran for five months before a single coin moved, the exchange said Tuesday in its first public account of the Oct. 29 attack.

Another initial incident report from Binance, released alongside a media briefing by co-CEO Richard Teng and chief security officer Jimmy Su, describes a campaign that combined a poisoned software download, a staged recruitment process, malware that evaded endpoint detection and an internal AI tool the attackers turned against the company’s own wallet engineers. 

Binance said it has frozen or intercepted about $2.85 billion of the stolen assets and replenished 98% of affected tokens from its own funds, with the balance being bought on the open market.

“This wasn’t one mistake or one breach — it was a months-long campaign,” Teng wrote on X. “We’re publishing the full report because the lessons go far beyond Binance.”

The FBI has attributed the attack to North Korea. Binance’s report cites that finding but stops short of its own attribution. Pyongyang rejected the claim Monday, with Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, calling it a “grave political provocation” through state media.

The Binance hack had five months of preparation

According to Binance, the first foothold for this hack came in June. A wallet DevOps engineer searched for a popular AI coding tool and downloaded a tampered Homebrew installer. 

Binance’s security team caught the anomaly, replaced the device and rotated credentials, but the episode exposed the engineer’s role and the names of colleagues on the wallet infrastructure team.

In September, a second engineer was approached on a legitimate job platform by someone posing as a project director. A video interview with a purported HR representative followed, with the interviewer sharing a personal social media account to build trust. A second interview with a supposed CEO ended with an “assignment”: a code repository the engineer was told to install on his work machine. 

The repository replaced a legitimate pyenv component with a malicious version and opened a channel to an attacker-controlled server. Binance said the zero-day malware was not flagged by its endpoint tools at the time.

On Oct. 20, the attackers used that machine and an internal AI tool to reach two more wallet engineers, one of whom held a container deployment token. On Oct. 29, between 17:15 and 19:56 UTC, they logged into a third engineer’s computer, deployed a container with the stolen credentials and launched the drain. Binance said it blocked 57 other suspected North Korea-linked attempts this year using similar lures.

Four hours to contain

The money left fast. Between 20:05 and 20:09 UTC, five hot wallets sent 233.46 million XRP to an attacker address. Wallets on Solana and Optimism followed with about 970,500 SOL and 44.2 million OP. A Binance hot wallet then sent 18,270 BTC. 

The attacker used the compromised signing service to invoke Ethereum’s EIP-7702, which lets an account delegate execution rights to a smart contract without exposing its key, and gave an attacker-controlled contract partial control of a Binance hot wallet.

Suspending withdrawals did not stop that last channel. The attackers had submitted 50 signing transactions to establish on-chain delegations that operated outside Binance’s withdrawal infrastructure. Because the wallet used multi-party computation, no single key existed to revoke them, and the team had to build a procedure on the spot. The final unauthorized transfer, 2,961.9 ETH, settled at 23:56 UTC. 

Binance cleared the delegation at 00:10 UTC on Oct. 30.

The report acknowledges the gap. “These challenges extended the time required to fully contain the unauthorized asset movements,” it says, adding that the company is reviewing its signing policy coverage and hot wallet controls.

Customers withdrew $10.97 billion in the 46 hours after withdrawals reopened Sunday, with net outflows of $5.28 billion, according todata Teng shared Tuesday. By 03:00 UTC hourly deposits exceeded withdrawals, a shift Teng called a sign of stabilization. Binance reopened withdrawals for dozens more assets across nine networks on Tuesday.

The breach has become a talking point in Washington. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the hack “proves our exact point” about the need for a federal registration path for offshore exchanges, and on Tuesday the agency cleared equity perpetual futures for U.S.-regulated venues, extending the onshoring push it began with Kalshi’s bitcoin perp in May.

Binance said it has rebuilt the wallet system and the internal AI tool in new environments, replaced affected devices, revoked the engineers’ credentials and expanded behavioral anomaly detection. 

It is commissioning an independent review, raising spending on endpoint and developer-environment security and planning a research fund on AI security with outside firms. Some technical details, the report says, will stay private. 

This post Binance Says $6.34 Billion Hack Began With Fake Job Interview  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

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Bitcoin Magazine

Andrew Hohns: Why Bitcoin Can Fix America’s Debt Spiral

U.S. federal debt has grown 40x in 45 years, from $1 trillion in 1981 to over $40 trillion. Andrew Hohns, founder and CEO of Battery Finance, explains why he doesn’t expect tax hikes or spending cuts to fix it, and how a strategic Bitcoin reserve could help defease the national debt. He also makes the case for the Treasury to pilot BitBonds.

Chapters:
00:00 Andrew Hohns on Bitcoin and the Midterms
00:47 Bond Market Volatility and America’s Fiscal Outlook
01:22 40x Federal Debt Growth in 45 Years
02:55 A Strategic Bitcoin Reserve to Defease the Debt
03:20 Why BitBonds Haven’t Come to Market Yet
05:12 Higher Borrowing Costs and the Digital Credit Boom
06:15 Battery Finance’s Bitcoin-Backed Real Estate Loans
07:03 The $2 Trillion Real Estate Refinancing Wall
08:52 How Battery’s Loans Avoid Margin Calls
11:03 Which Property Types Are Under Pressure
13:34 The Future of Bitcoin and Real Estate Financing
16:25 Digital Credit and Institutional Bitcoin Adoption

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this show are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BTC Inc., Bitcoin Magazine, or any affiliated entities. This content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Nothing contained in this show constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer to buy or sell any securities or financial instruments. Viewers should consult their own advisors before making financial or business decisions.

This post Andrew Hohns: Why Bitcoin Can Fix America’s Debt Spiral first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Patrick Green.

Bitcoin Magazine

CFTC Opens U.S. Stock Market to Equity Perpetual Futures

Perpetual futures on individual stocks can begin trading on U.S.-regulated exchanges for the first time, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Tuesday, extending a product that was confined to offshore crypto venues a year ago into the equity market.

In a statement, CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said the contracts, which he called “Equity Perps,” were deemed approved under Commission Regulation 40.3 as security futures products. 

They may list on exchanges that hold a CFTC designated contract market registration and a notice registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a national securities exchange for security futures.

“This expansion marks a significant step towards allowing U.S. market participants, consistent with applicable law, to avail themselves of the advantages of perpetual futures,” Selig said. He said bringing the products inside the agency’s framework means Americans no longer need to “turn to offshore, and often unregulated, venues.”

The contracts fall under the Commodity Exchange Act, federal securities law and the rulebooks of both agencies. The statement names no exchange, lists no contracts and sets no launch date. 

Those details are expected to come from the designated contract markets themselves.

CFTC: From bitcoin perps to stock perps in five months

Perpetual futures have no expiration date. Instead of settling on a fixed day, longs and shorts exchange periodic funding payments that keep the contract price tied to spot. The structure has dominated crypto derivatives for years, with most volume on platforms outside U.S. jurisdiction.

The CFTC approved the first U.S.-listed bitcoin perpetual, Kalshi’s BTCPERP, on May 29, and Kalshi went live with the product soon after. The same day, staff granted no-action relief that lets Coinbase Financial Markets route U.S. clients into offshore perp and options liquidity. Kalshi added gold and silver perpetuals in September. 

In his statement Tuesday, Selig described the equity contracts as an extension of that May decision “beyond digital commodities and into traditional securities.”

The legal basis is older. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 created a joint CFTC-SEC regime for security futures products, and the two agencies signed a memorandum of understanding on March 11 to coordinate rulemaking and enforcement. 

Selig cited both, and repeated SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins’s description of security futures as stranded in a regulatory “no man’s land” for lack of harmonization. The agencies had set out a joint crypto asset taxonomy earlier in the year.

Not everyone accepts the CFTC’s reading. CME Grou  sued the agency in June over the Kalshi approval, arguing that a contract built on exchanged funding payments is a swap under Dodd-Frank, not a future. 

That case is pending. An equity version adds the SEC’s jurisdiction to the mix and may draw a new set of objections from securities-side participants.

The onshoring argument after Binance

The approval lands five days after the largest theft in crypto’s history. On Oct. 29, attackers that TRM Labs and Chainalysis link to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group drained about $6.3 billion from Binance’s hot wallets in roughly 20 minutes. 

Binance reopened withdrawals on Sunday and says it has replenished about 95% of affected assets.

Selig used the breach to press the case he made in Tuesday’s statement. 

“The real issue here is that these are unregulated offshore exchanges, and they don’t have the same sorts of safeguards that we have in our financial markets here in the United States,” he told CNBC on Oct. 30. 

He said the hack “proves our exact point” about the agency’s October proposal, an advance notice of rulemaking that would create a voluntary federal registration path for crypto exchanges with cybersecurity, proof-of-reserves and custody requirements. Selig has said the CFTC cannot make that registration mandatory without Congress.

The equity perp approval works from the same premise. Perpetuals built the offshore derivatives business; moving them onto dual-registered U.S. exchanges puts the margin, clearing and surveillance rules of two federal agencies around them. 

Selig framed it as a choice between regulated access and “being forced to turn to offshore, and often unregulated, venues.”

This post CFTC Opens U.S. Stock Market to Equity Perpetual Futures first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Reuters, citing KCNA, reported the denial after the FBI blamed TraderTraitor for stealing more than $6 billion from Binance.

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Participating institutions can settle tokenized deposit transactions in central bank money beyond conventional hours, supporting treasury and fund activity.

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On Solana, staked coins have to move even though not a single one of them was stolen. According to data cited by the industry outlet Unchained, around 1.56 million SOL were delegated on October 28 to the validator run by the Solflare wallet, which has stopped generating rewards after a key incident at a staking service provider. Solflare has now extended the deadline for switching to a new validator to November 30, and the SOL price stood at $92.99 on Tuesday evening, November 3.

What is established: on October 26 and 27, unknown parties used operating keys from five Solana validators and, by the calculation of analytics firm Bitquery, withdrew assets worth around $135,000; users' delegated balances were left untouched. Our assessment follows further below. For the price, the incident is a footnote. For anyone staking SOL, it is a reminder that the choice of validator carries a risk of its own.

Where the price could head over a horizon of months is covered in our Solana price prediction. This piece is about the coming days and weeks: what exactly happened at the validators, why staking income can stop without a single coin being lost, which chart levels matter now and what investors in Germany need to consider for tax purposes when moving their delegation.

Solana validator incident: what happened on October 26 and 27

A validator is a computer that produces new blocks on the Solana blockchain, checks the blocks of others and supports consensus with its vote. For every vote it pays a small fee from an account of its own, the so-called vote account. Anyone running a validator manages several keys for this: one for the machine's identity, one for voting and one that can withdraw funds from the vote account.

These operating keys were precisely the target. According to an analysis by Bitquery dated October 29, reported by Coinpaper, the attacker used keys belonging to five validators, including those of Solflare, Blockdaemon and Astraeus. On October 27, four validators stopped voting at the same time. Within three minutes, assets worth around 1,188 SOL flowed into a single wallet; Bitquery puts the total at 1,343 SOL. The largest share was 637 JitoSOL, a liquid staking token that Bitquery values at around 833 SOL.

The money trail shows how professionally the outflow was organized. The attacker swapped JitoSOL into SOL, moved the assets to the Ethereum blockchain via the Bridgers and Chainflip services and on October 28 deposited around 57 ETH into the Tornado Cash mixer. According to Bitquery, the first deposits there came less than nine minutes after the first withdrawal across the bridge.

On the cause, Blockdaemon published a forensic update on October 30. As described by Coinpaper, the keys dated from 2020 to 2022 and sat as a local copy on a former employee's company device; the company said it found no sign of an intrusion into its current validator infrastructure. How the attacker obtained the copy remains unclear as things stand.

Delegated staking explained: why the staked SOL are not gone

Anyone staking SOL through a wallet does not hand the coins over to the validator. The SOL sit in a separate stake account that only the owner controls with their private key. Delegating simply means that the stake account points to a particular validator and gives it voting weight. In return, the owner receives a share of the rewards the validator earns in every epoch. On Solana, an epoch lasts about two days.

A validator's keys therefore cannot drain a stake account. Solflare put it this way on X on October 27: "Your SOL is safe," adding that user funds had not been touched. Bitquery likewise found no indication that money from customers' stake accounts flowed into the attacker's wallets. What the attacker could drain were the operators' own accounts, including the vote accounts that pay the fees for voting.

That is exactly where the damage lies for delegators. A validator with an empty vote account can no longer vote, and a validator that does not vote earns no rewards. The staked SOL remain fully intact; they simply earn nothing for as long as they are delegated to that validator. A summary of validator discussions by the operator Chainflow also states that the attacker was able to change the withdrawal authority of the affected validators, in which case a validator cannot simply keep running with new keys. We have not found this point confirmed by a primary source, but it would explain why Solflare is setting up an entirely new validator.

1.56 million SOL without income: Solflare extends the move to November 30

Solflare has set up a replacement validator and offers the move directly in its app. Initially, November 1 was the cut-off date for reimbursing missed rewards. According to a report by Parameter on November 3, the wallet has since extended the deadline: "You now have until November 30 to move your stake to the new Solflare validator." Anyone who moves by then will have the rewards for the period from October 26 to November 1 reimbursed.

At the same time, Solflare warns of scammers who could exploit the move: the migration runs exclusively through the app, and the company will never send anyone a direct message or a link. That is the single most important practical sentence of the whole incident. After every known security incident, fake reimbursement pages appear that ask for the seed phrase or request a signature for a supposed refund.

Co-founder Vidor also declared a so-called bunker mode on X on November 1: access to infrastructure and code is locked down, every change requires multiple approvals, and nothing new gets in. "It slows us down and I’m fine with that," he wrote. For customers, this means that new features at Solflare are unlikely in the coming weeks.

SOL price at $93: what has changed since November 2

In our Solana analysis of November 2, the price stood at $92.78, and the 200-day line at $88.86 was the level expected to decide the next direction. SOL has not reached that line since. The low came on Monday at $90.71 on Kraken, just under two dollars above it, and on Tuesday evening SOL traded slightly higher again at $92.99. In euro terms, that was €83.13 at the same time.

What is new is the security picture. On Monday, Binance's freeze on Solana withdrawals after the October 29 hack was still weighing on the market; the exchange has since gradually reopened withdrawals over the Solana network. The price slide of October 29, when SOL fell from $102.33 to $95.40 in a single day, coincides with that hack and not with the validator incident, which began two days earlier.

We described the link with fund flows this morning in our piece on the outflows from Solana ETFs. Little had changed by the evening: the pressure comes from capital flows, not from the technology.

Solana chart: 200-day line at $88.86, 50-day line at $108.79

The levels are derived from daily closing prices on Kraken. The 20-day moving average stands at $101.33, the 50-day at $108.79 and the 100-day at $98.36. A moving average is the mean of closing prices over a fixed period; it smooths out daily swings and shows whether a trend is holding. SOL is therefore below three of the four lines, with only the long 200-day line at $88.86 still beneath it.

On the upside, the zone around $98 to $100 is the first hurdle. The 100-day line runs there, and the price sat there until October 28 before dropping almost seven percent in one day. Only a daily close above $100 would call the downward move since late October into question. The 20-day line at $101.33 sits just above and reinforces this hurdle.

On the downside, the 200-day line remains the most important level. If SOL breaks below it on a daily closing basis, there is little support until the $84 to $88 zone: SOL closed there between August 20 and 22, before the price turned higher in September. Below that lies the area around $70 to $75, where the price moved for almost six weeks from early July to mid-August; the low came on August 1 at $70.54.

Security wave since the Binance hack: why the validator incident barely moves the price

The incident falls in a week in which the industry is processing several attacks at once: the Binance hack of October 29, a reported data leak at Keystone and the withdrawal halt at Mercado Bitcoin. Measured against these, the damage at the Solana validators is small. Around $135,000, set against a recent daily trading volume of roughly $2.5 billion that CoinGecko shows for SOL, is not supply that noticeably weighs on the market.

More important is what the incident was not. The protocol itself worked: the blockchain kept running, no block was lost and no stake account was drained. What was hit was the operational side of individual validators, that is, the question of how carefully a provider handles old keys. For the price, such a mishap usually counts for less than a day of outflows from the spot ETFs.

Staking rewards and the holding period: the tax side for investors in Germany

In Germany, staking rewards count as other income under Section 22 No. 3 of the Income Tax Act (EStG). They are valued in euros on the day they are received, and they remain tax-free as long as all income of this kind stays below the exemption limit of €256 for the year in total. If the limit is exceeded by even one euro, the entire amount becomes taxable. The Federal Ministry of Finance guidance (BMF letter) does not explicitly address how a later reimbursement of missed rewards by Solflare should be classified; anyone receiving such a payment should record it separately with its date and euro value.

Moving the delegation itself is not a sale. The SOL stay in the same stake account or move to a new stake account belonging to the same owner, and nothing is exchanged. The one-year holding period for the staked coins therefore keeps running, and according to the BMF letter of March 6, 2025, staking does not extend it to ten years either. Whether the holding period itself will survive is politically open; we track the state of the debate on our page on the crypto holding period reform.

A gap in income, incidentally, carries no tax disadvantage: anyone who received no rewards for a week has nothing to tax for that week. What matters is that records remain complete, so that income after the move is cleanly assigned to the correct day.

Our assessment: an operational risk, not a protocol flaw

Our assessment: the validator incident changes little about the price direction over the next few weeks. The evidence is clear: around $135,000 in damage, no stolen user balances and no interruption of the blockchain. What remains decisive for SOL is the distance to the 200-day line at $88.86 and whether the spot ETFs report inflows again. As long as the price closes below the $98 to $100 zone, a further test of the 200-day line is more likely than a quick recovery.

Against this view: the long line itself is still rising, and security news has tended to ease in recent days since Binance began reopening withdrawals. A close above $100 would quickly turn the picture around. The incident also exposes a weakness that goes beyond Solflare: many delegators choose their validator once and never look again. None of this is a recommendation to buy or sell. Cryptocurrencies can fall all the way to a total loss.

Solana staking after the validator incident: there is time until November 30

1. Look up your validator: Open your wallet and check which validator your SOL are delegated to. If you use Solflare, move only within the updated app and ignore any message containing a link. If you want to switch provider entirely, you will find a selection among the staking platforms compared.
2. Keep your keys safe: The incident involved old keys on a forgotten device. The same principle applies to your own SOL: seed phrase offline, larger amounts on a device used only for storage. Which devices support Solana is shown in our hardware wallet comparison.
3. Set price alerts: Create alerts at $88.86 for the 200-day line and at $100 for the upper hurdle. Buy SOL only from a provider with MiCA authorization; the regulated crypto exchanges offer a selection.

(As of November 3, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

The largest theft in the history of the crypto market started with a job interview. On November 3, 2026, Binance published a first incident report on the hack of October 29. According to the report, the attackers did not reach the exchange's hot wallets with a stolen key but through months of groundwork: a tampered software package in June, a fake hiring process in September and an internal AI tool in October. Binance puts the damage at more than $6.3 billion.

For the exchange's customers, the report changes little about the current situation. Binance says around 98 percent of the affected holdings have been replaced with company funds, and it is reopening withdrawals step by step. The method matters more. The same scheme of fake job offers and poisoned test assignments has been aimed at developers, freelancers and retail investors for years, and a handful of habits are enough to fend it off.

Binance incident report: how the $6.3 billion hack began

Binance released the report on Tuesday through its own channel on X, alongside a press briefing with security chief Jimmy Su, which CoinDesk reported on. In its summary of the report, The Block cites a figure of $6.34 billion. Both outlets describe the same four-stage sequence, which stretched over five months.

On October 30, Binance had briefly attributed the cause to a compromised laptop in the DevOps team. The new report explains how the attackers got hold of that device and why a single computer was enough. Co-CEO Richard Teng summed it up on X, paraphrased: this was neither a single mistake nor a single breach, and the perpetrators had run a campaign over several months.

The four stages at a glance

• June 2026: An engineer on the wallet DevOps team installs a tampered Homebrew package.
• September 2026: A second employee downloads a rigged coding assignment onto his work computer as part of a fake hiring process.
• October 20, 2026: Through this computer and an internal AI tool, the attackers take over the devices of two wallet engineers.
• October 29, 2026, 20:05 UTC: Using stolen credentials, they launch a container running a malicious script, and the funds start to drain.

Fake hiring process: the coding test with zero-day malware

The decisive foothold was gained in September. According to Su, a software engineer was contacted through a genuine job platform. The sender posed as a project manager. A video call followed with a supposed HR manager, who shared a social media profile with private photos to build trust. A purported company chief appeared in a second call.

It ended with a coding assignment of the kind that is common in technical hiring. The engineer downloaded it onto his work computer. According to Su, the file contained zero-day malware that bypassed the device's endpoint protection. A zero-day vulnerability is a flaw the security software vendor does not yet know about, which is why no detection exists for it at the time of the attack.

The pattern is not new. The FBI warning of September 3, 2024 describes exactly this approach: the perpetrators study professional networks, build trust through lengthy conversations, appear as several people and finally get their victims to run code, for example as a hiring test or as debugging with unfamiliar packages.

Tampered Homebrew package: the first breach in June

Homebrew is a widely used package manager for macOS that lets developers install programs from the command line. According to the report as relayed by The Block, an engineer on the wallet DevOps team was looking for an AI coding tool in June and ended up with a tampered installation.

By its own account, Binance spotted the anomaly, replaced the device and rotated the affected credentials. Even so, the attackers now knew who worked on the wallet team and what role the engineer held. That knowledge about people could not be reset. The June incident was therefore no failure for the perpetrators: it gave them the map for their second attempt.

Internal AI tool: hopping from machine to machine

On October 20, the attackers put the computer infected in September to use. Through an internal Binance AI tool, they reached the computers of two engineers on the wallet team. On one of these devices they found a permission to launch containers in the production environment. A container is a self-contained software environment in which a program runs with exactly the rights assigned to it.

Nine days later, on October 29, they used that permission. They launched a container and ran a script inside it that triggered the attack on the wallet infrastructure. According to the report, the AI tool helped both with the jump between computers and with access to the wallets' signing environment.

EIP-7702 and the MPC wallet: containment took just over four hours

According to CoinDesk, funds began leaving the exchange at 20:05 UTC. The attack was not contained until 00:10 UTC on October 30. Su gave the reason at the press briefing: the attackers exploited EIP-7702, an Ethereum extension from the Pectra upgrade that lets a regular account temporarily take on the logic of a smart contract. That gave them execution rights over a hot wallet.

Binance secures its hot wallets with multi-party computation (MPC). The private key never exists in one place; several parties generate every signature jointly. That protects against the theft of a single key. In Binance's case it had a downside: according to Su, no single key could revoke the permission that had been granted, which is why containment dragged on past midnight.

North Korea and TraderTraitor: what the FBI alleges and Pyongyang denies

The FBI attributes the attack to the North Korean group TraderTraitor. In its report, Binance itself speaks of social engineering, malware and compromised AI tools, and says it has already repelled 57 suspected North Korean attack attempts using similar methods in 2026.

North Korea rejects the attribution. According to The Block, the sister of leader Kim Jong-un on Monday called the FBI's claims a "grave political provocation." There is so far no solid evidence pointing to anyone else; the attribution remains an assessment by US authorities.

Frozen, replaced, SAFU halved: where Binance customer funds stand

Binance says it has frozen or intercepted around $2.85 billion and topped up about 98 percent of the affected holdings with company funds. Teng stresses that users are not affected by the loss. Since 04:00 UTC on November 3, the exchange has been reopening withdrawals in phases for dozens of tokens on BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Solana, XRP Ledger, Sui, Arbitrum, Optimism, TRON and Base. The tokens with the highest demand over the past week came first. After that, hourly deposits exceeded withdrawals, according to Binance.

To compensate users, Binance is also drawing on the SAFU fund, the exchange's emergency fund for user losses. According to CoinDesk, citing data from mempool.space, the fund's bitcoin holdings fell from 15,000 to just over 7,500 BTC through four transactions on October 31. At a bitcoin price of around $77,600 on Tuesday afternoon, according to CoinGecko, that is roughly $580 million. Binance has pledged to refill the fund to around $1 billion without giving a date. The exchange token BNB traded at around $700 at the same time, 0.4 percent below the previous day.

As consequences, the report lists closed entry points, rebuilt or replaced systems, stricter device controls and expanded, AI-assisted detection of unusual behavior. Binance is also commissioning an independent cybersecurity audit.

How to protect yourself from fake recruiters and malware in test assignments

What happened: In September 2026, attackers contacted a Binance engineer through a job platform, held video calls under false identities and got him to open an infected coding assignment on his work computer. On October 29, more than $6.3 billion drained out through this route (Binance incident report, as of November 3, 2026).

Are you affected? As a Binance customer you do not have to bear any loss, according to the exchange; your balance is being replaced and withdrawals are returning in phases. You can be hit by the same scheme if you work in the crypto industry, write code or apply for jobs with a crypto connection. A warning sign is an unusually fast, well-paid offer that leads to a task requiring you to download and run unfamiliar files.

1. Verify identity separately: Call the company on a number or address you looked up yourself before accepting an invitation to a second interview, and never rely on contact details from the recruiter's message.
2. Test assignments only in isolation: Open coding tasks from hiring processes only in a virtual machine with no access to your wallets, passwords and company accounts, as the FBI recommends.
3. No seed phrase on connected devices: Never store recovery phrases or private keys on a computer, phone or in the cloud; malware searches exactly these places first.
4. Software only from the original source: Install developer tools, AI assistants and browser extensions only via the link on the vendor's site, and check names and publishers carefully in package managers.
5. Larger amounts offline: Keep what you do not trade on a hardware wallet, and use a separate wallet with a small balance for tests, DeFi and airdrops.

Our guide how to store crypto safely explains the basics of secure custody, and the hardware wallet comparison lines up the right devices.

Social engineering against retail investors: the scheme reaches far beyond exchanges

Social engineering refers to attacks that target people rather than technology: perpetrators gain trust and get their victim to carry out the decisive action themselves. At Binance, that was downloading a test assignment. For retail investors, it is usually approving a transaction, entering the seed phrase or installing a supposedly useful app.

Fake job offers are a recurring route. Besides hiring tests, the FBI also lists supposed investment offers and approaches from well-known industry figures that rely on stolen photos and cloned company websites. Anyone who manages crypto on the same computer they use to open unfamiliar files carries, on a small scale, the same risk Binance faced on a large one.

The case also shows that good key management alone is not enough. Binance used MPC and replaced the device after the first incident in June. That did not stop the attack, because the perpetrators stole permissions rather than keys and kept their knowledge of the team. For investors, this means keeping the devices you work and browse on separate from the device you sign with.

Binance hack: one job interview opened the way to $6.3 billion

The incident report turns the record hack into a case of personnel security. Three steps help you apply its lesson to your own holdings:

1. A separate wallet for testing: Set up a dedicated software wallet with a small balance for DeFi, airdrops and new applications. You will find suitable apps in the software wallet comparison.
2. Keep long-term holdings offline: What you do not trade belongs on a device that never runs third-party code. Models and prices are in the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Choose exchanges by license: For the balance you leave on a trading platform, what counts is EU authorization, proof of reserves and clear compensation rules. Providers with a MiCA license are listed in the comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.

(As of November 3, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

What is established: the TRX price stands at $0.3097 on November 1, below the level of about $0.33 that the market showed before the attack on Binance on October 29. In its version of October 31, the analytics firm Elliptic still attributes about 475 million TRX to the attacker. Our assessment follows further down: for the price, this known stash weighs more heavily than any level on the daily chart.

The case is interesting for holders in Germany because, unusually, it is known who is selling and how much is left. In most price moves the other side remains anonymous. On the Tron blockchain, by contrast, the stash can be followed address by address.

Tron falls below its level before the attack on Binance

Tron costs $0.3097 on November 1, according to CoinGecko data. The daily high was $0.3278, the daily low $0.3017, and trading volume $1.39 billion. With a market value of $29.43 billion, TRX remains number eight in the market.

How large the decline over 24 hours is depends on the time window and the data provider. CoinGecko shows a drop of 4.97 percent at that point. Invezz, citing CoinPaprika, gives 7.0 percent for Saturday evening, measured at 17:50 London time at $0.308, and also points to the exchange OKX, which showed a 9 percent drop for its own 24-hour period. The range of about five to nine percent is explained by the starting point of each measurement.

The comparison with the level before the incident is what matters. Bitquery traced how the attacker swapped 234 million USDT into TRX on the decentralised exchange SunSwap, paying an average of $0.367 per token while the market price was about $0.33. That purchase briefly lifted TRX to about $0.37 on Kraken late on October 29. Nothing remains of this artificially created high, and the $0.33 from before the attack has also been breached.

475 million TRX with the attacker: Elliptic's count

Elliptic puts the total damage at $6.43 billion, drained on October 29, 2026. Of this, the firm says it has verified $2.85 billion as frozen or seized. That leaves a stash of about $3.21 billion that no issuer can block. According to Elliptic, this sum includes 519,104 ETH, 18,270 BTC, 233 million XRP and those roughly 475 million TRX.

TRM Labs attributes the attack to the North Korean group TraderTraitor and gives a damage figure of about $6.36 billion. Binance itself speaks of $6.3 billion. The attribution to a state-linked group is an assessment by the analytics firms, not a judicial finding; the identity of the perpetrators is unconfirmed.

According to TRM Labs' count, 612.7 million USDT and 46.4 million TRX on the Tron blockchain came from the Binance hot wallet. The far larger TRX stash was therefore created only by swapping the stolen stablecoins.

Overhang in the market: how a known seller caps the price

An overhang is a large quantity of a token, known to the market, that is likely to be sold. The mechanism works in two directions. First, every actual sale pushes the price down because it meets an order book with limited buy-side depth. Second, merely knowing about the stash has an effect: anyone wanting to buy waits, expecting to get in more cheaply later. This second effect explains why a price also gives way on days when the holder moves nothing at all.

For TRX there is the added factor that the quantity is large relative to trading. With 95.02 billion tokens in circulation, 475 million is about half a percent of supply. Measured against daily volume of $1.39 billion, however, the stash corresponds to a substantial share of what is traded in a day at all.

Frozen or not: 378.7 million USDT blocked, zero for TRX

According to TRM Labs, Tether has frozen 378.7 million USDT in two of the attacker's wallets. That is not possible for TRX itself. The difference lies in the design: USDT is a token issued by a company whose contracts contain a freeze function. TRX is the native currency of the Tron blockchain; there is no issuer that could immobilise individual balances.

This very difference explains why the attacker swapped at all. Converting freezable stablecoins into tokens that cannot be frozen was the price he paid to secure his loot, and at $0.367 per TRX that price was well above the market price at the time.

From 575 million to 475 million TRX: just over 100 million tokens fewer

On October 30 we reported here on a 9 percent price slide and a stash of 575 million TRX held by the attacker. Elliptic's count now stands at about 475 million. Between the two readings lie just over 100 million tokens that have found their way into the market or to new addresses.

On October 30 the price was still above $0.33 and thus around the pre-incident level. Since then the $0.32 mark has fallen, as has $0.31. With a daily low of $0.3017, the round $0.30 mark has so far narrowly held.

Also new is the link to an older case: Elliptic has confirmed that part of the Tron funds was laundered together with proceeds from the attack on Bitget in September 2026. That points to the same infrastructure, not necessarily to the same perpetrators.

546 transfers: the loot's trail on the blockchain

The main address through which the attacker moves his TRX has sent 546 individual transfers since early on October 30, according to Elliptic's count. Between $38 million and $67 million in TRX has now left the addresses Elliptic is watching. The firm itself gives the range; it arises because not every onward transfer can be clearly attributed.

On October 30 the original roughly 638 million TRX were split across five new addresses. Over the same period Bitquery counted 15 freshly funded wallets that sold 8.9 million TRX for 3.1 million USDT early on October 30, while the largest single stash stayed put. According to Crypto Briefing, Whale Alert also reported a movement of 120 million TRX to an unknown address.

The pattern of many small transfers is typical of an attempt to make sales disappear into normal trading volume. For investors it is the second window to watch alongside the chart: as long as the large addresses keep selling in small steps, the supply pressure remains.

Levels on the daily chart: $0.30 as the line, $0.33 as the lid

The analysts cited by Coinpaper place support at $0.32, $0.31 and $0.30 and resistance at $0.33, $0.34 and $0.36. The two upper supports have since fallen. What remains is the $0.30 mark, which was almost reached with the daily low of $0.3017.

On the upside, it is striking that the first resistance at $0.33 lies exactly where the price stood before the attack. As long as TRX trades below it, the incident has not been recovered in arithmetic terms. Over seven days the price is down 5.98 percent, over 30 days 7.42 percent. According to Invezz, about 30 percent separates the price from its all-time high of $0.44 in December 2024.

There is no price target from a bank or broker. Invezz expressly notes that no major institution publishes a formal forecast for TRX. Anyone coming across specific targets online is reading model calculations by individual providers, not analyst estimates in the stock-market sense.

TRON Proposal 108: due on November 2 at 12:00 GMT

Regardless of the overhang, a network date is coming up. According to Invezz, the proposal numbered 108 is due to take effect on November 2 at 12:00 GMT, provided the Super Representatives approve it. The Super Representatives are the 27 elected nodes that confirm blocks on the Tron blockchain and vote on parameter changes.

The date falls in a phase in which the market reacts to every piece of network news anyway. If you hold TRX and watch the price that day, you should be able to tell the two causes apart: a vote on network parameters is something different from outflows from a known address.

Buying, leverage and custody under MiCA in Germany

When it comes to buying, since the EU's MiCA regulation took full effect in Germany, providers need a licence to offer crypto services. If you want to trade TRX, you will find the licensed options in our comparison of the best crypto exchanges; it also lists the fee models, which weigh more heavily for a token with a comparatively low unit price than for bitcoin.

On the holding period, the situation for private investors is unchanged: after one year a capital gain from crypto assets is tax-free in Germany, and below that the exemption limit for private sale transactions applies. Selling in a weak phase and buying back shortly afterwards resets the period for the new holding.

Those using leverage have the bigger problem in this situation. A move of five to nine percent in a day is enough to liquidate a position at ten times leverage, and an overhang produces exactly such days. If you use derivatives, you should know your provider's liquidation rules before the next such day comes.

On custody: the attack hit an exchange's hot wallet, not the Tron blockchain itself. For holders this says nothing about the security of their own tokens, but it does raise the familiar trade-off between availability on the exchange and managing your own keys. Binance has announced a full proof of reserves for Monday and cited a reserve of $6.34 billion; whether such a proof holds up depends on the audit method.

Editorial assessment: the overhang weighs more than the daily chart

In the editors' view, the most important figure in this article is not the daily loss but the difference between 638 million and 475 million TRX. It shows that the holder is actually selling, and it allows a rough estimate of the remaining pressure. Supporting this are the 546 transfers since October 30 and the $38 million to $67 million cited by Elliptic that has left the observed addresses. Against it is that nobody knows the pace of the coming days: according to Bitquery, the largest single stash was unmoved on October 30, and a holder wishing to avoid attention can pause for months.

What is assessed here is the situation, not the investment. We do not derive a buy or sell verdict from it, and the risk of total loss with crypto assets persists regardless of this specific question.

Tron overhang: Proposal 108 decides by November 2

Three things matter in the coming days:

1. The $0.30 level. It is the last of the supports cited by Coinpaper that is still holding; the daily low was $0.3017. If you trade with leverage, check the liquidation rules beforehand in our overview of perp DEX platforms.
2. The attacker's stash. If the 475 million cited by Elliptic keeps falling, supply pressure stays in the market; if it stays put, part of the burden falls away. If you reallocate in this phase, keep an eye on the holding period and document it with a tax tool or portfolio tracker.
3. The network date on November 2. Proposal 108 is due to take effect at 12:00 GMT. If you want to hold your own keys and take responsibility for movements yourself, compare the devices in the hardware wallet comparison.

Sources for further reading: Elliptic's continuously updated analysis of the incident and the market overview by Invezz of October 31.

(As of November 1, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

XRP broke upward out of the narrow range of recent days on Tuesday afternoon and traded at $1.278, or about €1.14, at around 15:40 German time. That is a gain of 2.1 percent in 24 hours, while bitcoin lost 0.7 percent to $77,290 over the same period (data: CoinGecko). The reason to look ahead is a day away: on Wednesday, at 15:46 German time at the earliest, the correction fixCleanup3_4_0 is due to go live on the XRP Ledger, closing among other things a gap in delegated payment permissions.

What is established: 33 of 35 trusted validators currently vote for the fix, the majority has held without interruption since 14:46 UTC on October 21, and under the network's rules the change takes effect after a majority has been held for two weeks. Our assessment follows further down: the fix is a repair, not a price driver, but it removes a risk for the stablecoins on the ledger, and that counts for more in the medium-term XRP price prediction than an afternoon's move.

Where the price could head over a horizon of months is set out in our XRP price prediction with scenarios to 2030. This article stays with the next few days: what the fix changes technically, which levels now apply and what you as an investor in Germany can take from it.

XRP price leaves the range between $1.2355 and $1.2646

Since Saturday XRP had oscillated in a band of just 2.4 percent between $1.2355 and $1.2646, the tightest range since August according to the news service 99Bitcoins. On an hourly basis the price was still at $1.256 at 13:00 German time on Tuesday and at $1.278 just under two hours later. The 24-hour high reached $1.29, the low $1.24.

A breakout from such a tight range is often sharper than the figure suggests, because stop orders accumulate at both edges. A stop order is an instruction that automatically buys or sells as soon as a set price is reached. If they are triggered above $1.2646, demand enters the market that stems from mechanics rather than from new conviction. Whether this turns into a move that holds depends on whether the old ceiling now acts as a floor.

Trading volume over the past 24 hours was about $1.65 billion according to CoinGecko, and market capitalisation just under $81 billion. Over 30 days XRP is still down 14.2 percent despite the afternoon rally, and over seven days 2.1 percent.

fixCleanup3_4_0 closes the PaymentBurn gap in delegated payments

On the XRP Ledger, an amendment is a rule change on which the validators vote; there is no central body that simply rolls out an update. fixCleanup3_4_0 arrived with the xrpld 3.4.0 server software and bundles several corrections. The most important concerns permissions: since the PermissionDelegation feature, one account can transfer individual rights to another account, such as the right to destroy tokens. This right is called PaymentBurn.

According to the description in the list of known amendments on xrpl.org, a delegate holding only PaymentBurn could in certain cases execute a payment that tips a balance past zero into new issuance. A right to burn could thus, under some circumstances, become a right to mint. Affected are issued tokens, meaning trustline tokens and Multi-Purpose Tokens (MPT), as used by stablecoin issuers. XRP itself is not affected: its supply is fixed and cannot be minted afresh.

After the fix, the ledger rejects such a payment unless the delegate also holds the PaymentMint permission. Until the change is live, the developers advise issuers not to delegate PaymentBurn at all, according to crypto.news. None of the reports cites a case in which tokens were actually created illegitimately through the gap.

33 of 35 validators: the timetable to Wednesday 15:46

We queried the state of the vote directly on a public ledger server on Tuesday and cross-checked it against the amendment tracker of XRPSCAN. Both show the same thing: fixCleanup3_4_0 has had a majority since 14:46:22 UTC on October 21, 2026. Two weeks later, on Wednesday, November 4, at 14:46 UTC or 15:46 German time, the amendment can go live at the earliest.

The count is 33 yes votes out of 35 trusted validators; the threshold is 28. If support falls to 80 percent or below, the two-week period starts again. Five votes lie between the current approval of 94 percent and that limit.

Why the vote already broke down once in October

The vote did not run entirely smoothly. According to crypto.news, support was below the required majority from October 9 to October 21, and the countdown that was already running lapsed. Activation had originally been expected on October 23. Only on October 21 did the majority return, and the clock started again.

For investors this is no side issue. An amendment backed by the validators becomes mandatory for every server: anyone running a version without support for an activated rule is considered amendment blocked and can no longer process the current state of the ledger. Operators of exchanges, wallets and payment services must therefore be on at least xrpld 3.4.0 before Wednesday afternoon. Major outages are rather unlikely, because the version has been available since September, but a missed update hits smaller services first.

Single Asset Vault and Lending Protocol remain locked despite the fix

The package also contains corrections for features that are not yet running on mainnet. These include rounding issues on deposit, withdrawal and clawback in Single Asset Vaults, as well as checks on delinquency and default in the Lending Protocol. A Single Asset Vault is a vault object on the ledger in which many accounts pool a single asset; the Lending Protocol builds loans on top of it.

According to our query, both features are far from a majority: SingleAssetVault has 21 of 35 votes, LendingProtocol 19. The fix therefore tidies up in advance, before these building blocks arrive. Anyone betting that loans will be possible on the XRP Ledger from Wednesday is mistaken. That feature needs its own vote.

Since the escrow relock: XRP price from $1.25 to $1.28

On Monday our article on the escrow relock of 700 million XRP cited a price of $1.25 and two levels: $1.2400 below and $1.2625 above. Both held until Tuesday midday. Ripple had released one billion XRP from escrow on November 1 and relocked 700 million of them until 2029; 300 million remained free.

Three things are new since then. First, the price crossed the upper level on Tuesday afternoon. Second, Binance is gradually reopening withdrawals after the attack at the end of October, and XRP was part of the first phase. On October 29 we had still been reporting on paused withdrawals for Solana and XRP. Third, the analytics service Santiment counted 7,934 newly created XRP wallets on November 1, the sixth-highest daily figure of the year; the number then fell to 4,101.

Levels for the XRP price prediction: $1.2646 below, $1.30 and $1.3343 above

On the downside, the old ceiling of the range at $1.2646 counts first. If it holds on a pullback, the breakout was genuine. If the price falls back below it, the next level is the range low at $1.2355, which almost exactly matches the daily close of October 30 at $1.2357.

On the upside, the first hurdle is $1.30. XRP lost that level on October 31, when the price slid after the Binance attack. Above it comes $1.3343, the daily close of October 21, the day the majority for the fix returned. On October 22 XRP even closed at $1.3651. For context: 30 days ago the price still stood at just over $1.51.

Our view on the ledger fix as a price driver

Our assessment: the fix alone is unlikely to carry the XRP price. One reason is that it is a bundle of bug fixes that will prompt nobody to buy XRP; the tokens affected are stablecoins and other issued assets, not XRP. The comparison with October points the same way: when the majority returned on October 21, the price rose to $1.3651 the following day, but then fell to $1.29 within a week.

What still makes the fix relevant is the context. Ripple is building the ledger into a platform for institutions with the RLUSD stablecoin and escrow functions, and a gap through which a delegate can mint tokens would be a deal-breaker for an issuer. If the fix arrives on Wednesday as planned, that risk disappears. Arguing against a quick continuation of the breakout is that the broader market remains weak on US election day and XRP is still clearly down over 30 days. We do not derive a price target from this.

Token issuers, RLUSD and trustlines: who is affected by the fix

If you keep XRP in your own wallet, you do not need to do anything because of the fix. Things are different if you hold issued tokens via a trustline, such as a stablecoin on the XRP Ledger. A trustline is a trust relationship between your account and the issuer that you must set up before you can receive its tokens. Here the risk lies with the issuer: if it has delegated PaymentBurn to another account, it should revoke that by Wednesday.

For your own custody, the following applies regardless: the fewer rights your account transfers to third parties, the smaller the attack surface. Any ledger explorer shows whether your account carries delegations when you look up your address there. If you hold larger amounts, keep them on a hardware wallet; our hardware wallet comparison shows which devices are suitable for XRP.

Holding period and buying XRP under MiCA

For investors in Germany the fix changes nothing for tax purposes. Gains from XRP are tax-free after a holding period of one year; before that they count as a private sale transaction with an exemption limit of €1,000 a year. We track the state of the planned reform of the holding period on our page on the crypto holding period reform. If you bought at higher prices in October, you may be sitting on losses after the 14.2 percent drop over 30 days, and these can be offset against gains from other coins in the same year.

If you want to buy now, it is best to purchase XRP from a provider licensed under the EU's MiCA regulation, which has applied to all crypto service providers in Germany since the end of the transition period. Our comparison of the best crypto exchanges shows which platforms hold such a licence and what buying there costs.

XRP Ledger fix: from Wednesday 15:46 the $1.2646 level counts

1. Note the date: from Wednesday at 15:46, fixCleanup3_4_0 can go live, provided at least 29 of 35 validators keep their vote. If you want to buy or sell, use a regulated platform from the exchange comparison so that withdrawals do not depend on a service that misses the update.
2. Watch the level: if XRP holds above $1.2646 on a pullback, the breakout remains intact; a close below it leads back into the old range. Keep holdings you hold for longer safely on a device from the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Record purchase data: each purchase counts separately for the holding period. A tool from our comparison of crypto tax tools records the purchase date and cost basis so you can prove a tax-free sale after twelve months.

(As of November 3, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Binance has weathered the first rush after reopening withdrawals. In the first nine and a half hours or so from 6 a.m. UTC (7 a.m. German time) on Sunday, November 1, customers withdrew $4.65 billion and deposited $1.01 billion, according to the exchange. On balance, $3.64 billion left the platform. Measured against the $171 billion that Binance reported in its proof of reserves of October 28, that is 2.1 percent, as CNBC reported, citing Binance.

For you as a Binance customer in Germany, this means for now: the exchange is paying out on the networks that have been reopened, and on the figures known so far an outflow of this size does not put it under pressure. The full proof of reserves is still outstanding. Binance has announced it for Tuesday, November 3. Only then can it be checked whether balances are in fact backed one to one after the attack of October 29.

Binance net outflow: $4.65 billion out, $1.01 billion in

A net outflow is the difference between all withdrawals and all deposits at an exchange over a given period. It shows how much customer money has left on balance and is therefore more telling than the sum of withdrawals alone. At Binance the ratio in the first window was a little over four to one: for every dollar deposited, about $4.60 went out.

According to CNBC, the window runs from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. UTC on November 1. Binance said, according to the report, that withdrawals had declined and stabilised after an initial spike, while deposits had remained "substantial". Binance founder Changpeng Zhao wrote on X that most of the net outflows had occurred in the first few hours after the reopening. He added the line "98% choose to stay!" The figure is his own reading of the 2.1 percent and not a separately measured value.

The context helps. Withdrawals had been frozen for about 45 hours after the hack. Some of those who could not get at their money during that time wanted to see it straight away. An outflow in the first hours is therefore to be expected and is not in itself a verdict on trust. More telling is whether it ebbs or persists over the following days.

Outflow figures compared: Binance, DefiLlama and CoinDesk count differently

Anyone following the Binance news is currently seeing three very different numbers. They do not contradict each other; they measure different things:

• $3.64 billion: the net outflow according to Binance's own books, over about nine and a half hours.
• $4.05 billion: the net outflow over 24 hours according to the data service DefiLlama, as of 11:37 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, as The Block reports. DefiLlama tracks $131.1 billion in known Binance wallets.
• More than $6 billion: the total of all tokens that, according to CoinDesk, left wallets attributed to Binance within 24 hours. This includes transfers between the exchange's own wallets, so it is a gross figure. CoinDesk puts it at about 3.6 percent of the $171 billion.

The reliable range for actual customer outflows on day one is therefore between $3.64 billion and just over $4 billion. The $6 billion figure makes for headlines but says the least about customer behaviour.

Part of the money ended up with competitors. According to The Block, DefiLlama counted combined net inflows of about $368 million at the ten next-largest exchanges it tracks, of which $316.8 million went to OKX. CoinDesk puts the figure for OKX at about $450 million and for Bybit at about $134 million. Here too, the aggregate data does not show how much came directly from Binance customers. Most of the billions withdrawn apparently went to customers' own wallets or to providers that DefiLlama does not track.

Bitcoin holdings at Binance: down 19,289 BTC in 24 hours

The movement is clearest in the largest coin. According to CoinGlass data cited by The Block, the bitcoin balance on Binance addresses fell by about 19,289 BTC within 24 hours. Coinbase recorded an increase of about 984 BTC over the same period, Kraken about 1,422 BTC. A large share of the bitcoin withdrawn therefore did not go to another major exchange.

That fits a pattern seen after every major exchange incident: some customers move their coins into self-custody. Self-custody means holding the private keys to your coins yourself, for example on a hardware wallet, rather than entrusting them to an exchange. Our hardware wallet comparison shows which devices are suitable and what they cost. For investors who hold their bitcoin for the long term, this is the safest form of storage regardless of Binance, because a hack at the exchange does not touch coins in your own wallet.

Phase one of Binance withdrawals: 15 networks open, hundreds of coins still blocked

The reopening is happening in phases. From 6 a.m. UTC Binance first opened 15 networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, the XRP Ledger and the main networks for the stablecoins USDT and USDC. By 12:36 p.m. UTC all 15 networks in this first phase were available again, according to the exchange. The individual networks are listed in our overview of the reopening.

For many customers the matter is not yet settled. According to The Block, Binance's status page at 11:22 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday still showed withdrawals blocked for 531 of 552 listed coins, with 14 partially reopened. Binance is still testing the remaining networks, among them Cardano, Chainlink, Hyperliquid, Litecoin and NEAR. The exchange has not yet published a date for the next phase.

If you hold coins outside the first phase, you have two options. You can wait for your network to reopen, or you can swap on Binance into a coin that can already be withdrawn. The second route has a catch that German investors often overlook: swapping one crypto asset for another counts as a disposal for tax purposes. If you bought less than a year ago, any gain is taxable, and the holding period starts again for the new coin.

Reimbursing the hack loot: 95 percent replaced, Circle freezes $1.1 billion in USDC

The rush stems from the attack of October 29, in which about $6.3 billion flowed out of the hot wallets, according to the exchange. Hot wallets are an exchange's permanently internet-connected wallets through which it processes withdrawals. The FBI attributes the theft to the North Korean group TraderTraitor.

Binance says it had replaced about 95 percent of the affected amount by November 1, up from 90 percent in the previous update. The remainder concerns less liquid tokens that can only be bought slowly in sufficient quantity on the market. According to CNBC, the exchange is bearing the losses itself and not passing them on to customers.

Part of the loot has also been frozen. Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin, has blocked more than $1.1 billion in USDC linked to the incident, according to CNBC. On Friday Circle chief executive Jeremy Allaire had still spoken of more than $800 million. The attacker can no longer move frozen stablecoins.

Proof of reserves with a zero-knowledge proof: Binance names Tuesday as the date

Binance has yet to deliver the real test. In its announcement on the recovery, the exchange says the full proof of reserves is expected by Tuesday, November 3 (UTC). It is based on a snapshot of holdings at midnight UTC on October 31. Co-CEO Richard Teng had originally named Monday. Binance attributes the delay to the computing effort: generating the proof takes about 40 to 50 hours.

A zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic method that can verify a statement without disclosing the underlying data. For a proof of reserves this means Binance can show that the sum of all customer balances is covered by its own holdings without publishing individual account balances. Each customer can also check whether their own balance is included in the calculation.

One point matters for context: such a proof applies to a reference date. It shows whether there was enough on October 31 and says nothing about liabilities beyond customer balances. We explain in detail how to find your own balance in the proof and where its limits lie in Binance proof of reserves.

Prices after the Binance outflow: bitcoin at $77,714, BNB at $703.60

The outflow has left barely a mark on the market. Bitcoin traded at $77,714 on the afternoon of Monday, November 2, 0.16 percent below its level 24 hours earlier. BNB, the exchange's token, stood at $703.60, down 1.31 percent. All prices according to CoinGecko data.

BNB is the asset in which confidence in Binance can be read most directly. Many investors read a decline of 1.31 percent after an outflow of several billion dollars as a sign that the market considers the numbers manageable. That is no guarantee for the coming days: if Tuesday's proof of reserves brings a surprise, many traders expect it to show up first in the BNB price.

Withdrawing to your own wallet: network, test amount and tax

If you want to pull balances off Binance now, keep three points in mind. First, the network: many coins can be withdrawn over several blockchains, USDT for example over Ethereum, Tron or BNB Smart Chain. The receiving address must match the chosen network, or the payment is usually lost. A small test amount is worthwhile for the first withdrawal to a new address.

Second, authenticity: after major incidents, fake emails and websites circulate that lure users with a quick withdrawal or supposed compensation. Check the status of the networks only in the app or directly on binance.com, never via a link in a message.

Finally, tax, and here the situation for German investors is relaxed. Transferring coins to your own wallet is not a sale. No tax is due, and the one-year holding period keeps running. What matters is that you can document the coins' path later. So download your full transaction history from Binance before moving. A crypto tax tool then merges exchange and wallet and records the purchase dates for the holding period.

MiCA licence and switching exchanges: what matters when you move

Some customers will take the incident as a reason to switch exchanges. For investors in Germany, a licence under the EU's MiCA regulation is the most important criterion. MiCA stands for Markets in Crypto-Assets and has governed since the end of 2024 which providers may offer crypto services in the EU. Whether a provider is licensed is shown in the public register of the European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, where you can check before opening any account.

A MiCA licence does not protect against a hack. It does, however, oblige the provider to keep customer funds segregated, to meet capital requirements and to be subject to a supervisor you can turn to in a dispute. Our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges shows which exchanges operate in Germany with a licence and what they cost.

If you switch, your holding periods come with you as long as you transfer coins rather than sell them. If instead you sell on Binance and reinvest the money on the new exchange, the period restarts and any gain is taxed. Especially for bitcoin that has been in the portfolio for almost a year, this difference can amount to a lot of money.

Binance outflow: Tuesday's proof of reserves will show whether the backing holds

The weekend's figures so far point to an exchange that can absorb a rush. $3.64 billion in net outflows is a lot of money, but it is 2.1 percent of the most recently reported reserves. Nothing has been decided yet. The full proof of reserves on Tuesday will be decisive, and until then three steps make sense:

1. Review self-custody: coins you hold for the long term belong in your own wallet. Our comparison of hardware wallets gives an overview of suitable devices.
2. Check the licence before switching: if you want to change exchanges, choose a provider with a MiCA licence. The comparison of regulated crypto exchanges shows fees and offering.
3. Secure your records: export your Binance history before you move and merge it with a crypto tax tool so the holding period remains provable.

(As of November 2, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)

Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, Netflix, Lam Research, and SoFi objected to trading of their shares on the planned OKX-ICE tokenized stock venue, bringing the total to 56.

From AI deepfakes to poisoning code libraries: here's how North Korean hackers get inside crypto companies.

A suspected hacking wave has pushed supermarket freezers into defrost mode across ten European countries, with temperatures reportedly hitting 50°C. Nobody knows who's behind it or why it spread.

The National Cyber Security Centre said AI will expose security flaws "tolerated for far too long," and called time on "tech on the cheap."

The “Tierra” upgrade resolves a critical bug from the prior version, adds formal verification, and an AI-powered testing harness.

Fresh SEC documents show an ex-XRP treasury divesting its $5 million stake in Ripple following a private $300 share buyback deal.

South Korea is considering requiring cryptocurrency exchanges to keep 99% of customer assets in cold wallets.

HYPE surges after the CFTC approves the first-ever regulated US stock perpetuals, validating Hyperliquid’s core trading architecture.

Zcash futures flows drop 859% as Whales Reposition Amid Long Liquidations.

Michael Saylor's Strategy now boasts over $1 billion in unrealized profit as Bitcoin maintains stamina above its cost basis despite ongoing volatility.

TLDR

• SpaceX raises Q4 capital spending to $35B–$40B to accelerate AI compute expansion
• SPCX targets at least 13 GW of computing capacity by the end of 2027
• SpaceX Q3 revenue jumps 161% to $14.58B, beating Zacks estimates for the quarter
• Starlink adds 1.6 million subscribers as connectivity revenue climbs 69% year over year
• SpaceX reports $8.8B in adjusted EBITDA, marking a 306% annual increase

SpaceX (SPCX) shares climbed 3.45% to $141.08 after the company reported strong third-quarter 2026 financial results. The company also raised its capital spending outlook as it accelerates artificial intelligence infrastructure development. Meanwhile, management outlined expansion plans for compute capacity, Starlink services and Starship operations.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX

The company reported earnings of $0.35 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.10. Revenue reached $14.58 billion, exceeding the $12.54 billion estimate and increasing 161% year over year. Additionally, adjusted EBITDA climbed 306% to $8.8 billion as compute infrastructure and connectivity operations expanded.

SpaceX Raises Capital Spending as Compute Demand Accelerates

SpaceX expects fourth-quarter 2026 capital expenditures to reach between $35 billion and $40 billion. This represents an increase from third-quarter spending, which reached $19.6 billion. The company directed those funds toward compute infrastructure, Starship development and satellite production.

The increased spending supports SpaceX’s Super Intelligence (SI) infrastructure expansion. CEO Elon Musk expects nameplate compute capacity to reach 2.5 GW to 3 GW by December 2026. Furthermore, the company targets at least 13 GW of capacity by the end of 2027.

However, power availability, cooling systems, and electrical infrastructure remain important deployment requirements. SpaceX is developing turbine components internally to address power supply constraints. CFO Bret Johnsen also highlighted cloud demand and compute deployments with payback periods below one year.

SpaceX Expands Starship and Starlink Operations

SpaceX also outlined further progress in its Starship development program. Musk identified Flight 14 as a major milestone following the vehicle’s first orbital flight. The mission also included the deployment of operational Starlink V3 satellites.

Meanwhile, President and COO Gwynne Shotwell outlined plans for Starship Flight 15. SpaceX intends to attempt recovery of both vehicle stages during the mission. The company also targets its first second-stage reflight in early 2027.

Beyond Starship, Starlink continued expanding its consumer and enterprise operations. The satellite internet service reached 13.6 million consumer subscribers after adding 1.6 million during the quarter. Additionally, connectivity revenue increased 69% year over year to $5.2 billion, while monthly consumer average revenue per user reached $69.

SpaceX Reports Strong SI Revenue and Updates Growth Outlook

SpaceX generated $7.6 billion in SI revenue during the third quarter. The figure reflected expanding cloud agreements and contributions from the Cursor acquisition. Cursor generated $608 million following its August closing.

Furthermore, Shotwell highlighted enterprise adoption of Grok Bot and integration across Grok, Cursor, and related applications. Musk also outlined plans to allocate compute capacity between internal operations and external customers. The company intends to balance both areas while prioritizing commercial opportunities.

Management also reaffirmed its $100 billion annual recurring revenue target for December 2026. Johnsen projected first-quarter 2027 revenue between $33 billion and $37 billion. However, the company must balance infrastructure spending with operating cash flow and debt requirements.

SpaceX also addressed discussions surrounding a potential combination with Tesla. Musk confirmed that independent special committees were evaluating the proposal, although transaction terms remained unagreed. Meanwhile, management highlighted operating cash flows, investment-grade debt access and potential financing partnerships.

The post SpaceX (SPCX) Stock: Raises 2026 Capex Forecast as AI Compute Demand Surges appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Palantir stock dropped nearly 8% in Tuesday’s premarket trading despite stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings.
• Palantir reported $2.313 billion in quarterly revenue, representing 96% annual growth.
• Total contract value rose just 6% year over year to $2.918 billion, compared with 49% growth in the previous quarter.
• U.S. commercial contract value growth slowed to 11% from 153% in the second quarter.
• Long-term remaining performance obligations declined $70 million to $2.74 billion.

Palantir (PLTR) stock fell nearly 8% in Tuesday’s premarket trading after it reported slower third-quarter contract growth. Shares traded around $164.15 at 8 a.m. ET, compared with Monday’s $178.34 close.

Palantir Technologies Inc., PLTR

Palantir reported $2.313 billion in revenue, up 96% from a year earlier. Adjusted earnings reached $0.44 per share. Both results exceeded analyst forecasts, but contract figures grew more slowly than during the previous quarter.

Palantir Stock Faces Slower Contract Growth

Palantir signed contracts worth $2.918 billion, up 6% year over year. That followed 49% annual growth in the second quarter, when new contract value reached $3.373 billion.

U.S. commercial contracts totaled $1.463 billion, up 11% from a year earlier. The previous quarter recorded 153% annual growth and $2.132 billion in contracts. Palantir also closed 212 deals worth at least $1 million, versus 220 previously.

These figures measure contracted business, including customer options, rather than completed sales. The drop arrived amid broader selling of AI stocks, with Goldman Sachs data showing hedge funds reduced related holdings during October.

Long-Term Contracted Revenue Declines

Palantir reported $2.74 billion in long-term remaining performance obligations, down from $2.81 billion in the second quarter. The $70 million decline came as shorter-term obligations rose from $2.09 billion to $2.14 billion.

Total obligations fell slightly to $4.88 billion from $4.90 billion. They still stood 88% above the year-earlier level. The measure covers contracted revenue not yet recorded but excludes contracts lasting 12 months or less.

Finance chief David Glazer said termination rights also limit the measure’s coverage of government work. Separately, U.S. commercial remaining deal value reached $6.517 billion, rising 79% annually.

Other technology companies faced questions about rising AI infrastructure spending. Amazon recently reported a $42.4 billion trailing annual free cash flow outflow as it increased data-center investment.

Palantir Raises Its Revenue Outlook

Palantir projected fourth-quarter revenue of $2.649 billion to $2.653 billion, above analysts’ $2.46 billion estimate. It also increased its 2026 revenue forecast to $8.530 billion through $8.534 billion.

Glazer said customers signed several shorter Sovereign AI contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. He expects their size and duration to grow, although Palantir did not link them to the decline in long-term obligations.

Palantir-linked token PLTRB traded near $164.14, down 12% over 24 hours. Its trading differs from Nasdaq shares. The wider market is debating tokenized stock trading plans after several companies objected to one proposed system.

Palantir shares had already declined for five straight sessions through Monday. The stock lost about 10.3% during that period and closed 16.2% below its 52-week high of $212.94.

The post Palantir (PLTR) Stock Falls Nearly 8% Despite Earnings Beat appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Apple stock fell 4.46% to $323.23 in Tuesday’s premarket trading following its quarterly earnings report.
• Apple’s manufacturing purchase commitments increased by $33 billion to $89.7 billion during the September quarter.
• The company reported quarterly revenue of $114.5 billion, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $113.4 billion.
• Apple expects its December-quarter gross margin to fall to between 45% and 46% as memory costs rise.
• Apple reported $14.54 billion in inventory, representing a 31% increase from the June quarter.

Apple (AAPL) stock fell 4.46% to $323.23 in premarket trading Tuesday at 8:21 a.m. ET. The decline followed Apple’s warning about higher memory costs and a $33 billion rise in manufacturing purchase commitments, despite stronger quarterly earnings.

Apple Inc., AAPL

Apple Stock Drops After Earnings Beat

Apple reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion, up 12% from a year earlier. Revenue exceeded the $113.4 billion analysts expected. Earnings reached $2.10 per share, above estimates of $1.99, including five cents from tariff refunds.

Shares closed Monday at $338.32 after two losing sessions. The report arrived during a busy week for technology earnings, with other major companies also reporting results. Apple expects December-quarter revenue to increase between 7% and 10% from a year earlier.

Manufacturing Orders Rise to $89.7 Billion

Chief Executive John Ternus said supplier commitments increased by $33 billion between June and September. Apple’s annual filing, released Tuesday, put September manufacturing purchase obligations at $89.7 billion, compared with $57 billion in June. Of the September total, $82.7 billion falls due within 12 months.

The commitments cover planned purchases from suppliers and contract manufacturers, rather than existing debt. Apple did not disclose how much involved memory chips. Chief Operating Officer Sabih Khan said memory shortages could restrict Mac and iPad supplies during the holiday quarter. Inventory rose 31% to $14.54 billion. Earlier stockpiles offer temporary relief from recent memory price increases.

Rising Memory Costs Pressure Holiday Margins

Apple forecast a gross margin of 45% to 46% for December, down from September’s 47.9%. Analysts had expected about 47%. September’s result included roughly one percentage point from tariff refunds, placing its adjusted margin near 46.9%. This followed recent heavy selling of AI-linked shares.

Chief Financial Officer Kevan Parekh identified memory prices as the main reason for the expected decline. Siri AI cloud costs also feature in the forecast. Ternus called current memory prices “unprecedented” and expects further increases after December. Apple raised prices on several iPhone, Mac and iPad products during 2026.

Analysts Revise Targets as Tokenized Shares Fall

Apple-linked token AAPLB traded at $325.64, down 5.22% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap figures cited Tuesday. Separately, the New York Stock Exchange expanded its tokenized stock plans this week. Its proposed service remains separate from AAPLB and has no announced launch date.

Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng cut his Apple target from $390 to $380 but kept a Buy rating. Morgan Stanley’s Erik Woodring reduced his target from $355 to $350 while maintaining an Overweight rating.

The post Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Stock Falls as Supply Commitments Surge appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• New Jersey has withdrawn its 2023 Coinbase staking order and the associated $5 million penalty.
• The state regulator rescinded the order on October 30 without deciding whether Coinbase violated securities law.
• Coinbase estimates New Jersey residents missed more than $15 million in staking rewards during the restrictions.
• Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said staking access would return soon, although the exchange has not announced a reopening date.
• Existing Coinbase customers in New Jersey could continue earning staking rewards but could not add new funds.

New Jersey has withdrawn its 2023 order against Coinbase staking, clearing a path for residents to add crypto to the service after more than three years. The state also rescinded a $5 million penalty.

The October 30 notice, signed by Acting Bureau Chief Keith A. Alt, made no finding on whether the staking program broke securities law. Coinbase estimates New Jersey residents missed over $15 million in rewards.

New Jersey Withdraws Coinbase Staking Order

Coinbase said in its third-quarter filing that the state notified it on October 29 of plans to rescind the order. Chief Executive Brian Armstrong said access would return “very soon.”

However, Coinbase’s eligibility page still lists New Jersey among states where customers cannot stake new funds. The exchange has not announced a reopening date. Existing stakers can keep earning rewards.

How the 2023 Restrictions Worked

New Jersey joined nine other states on June 6, 2023, in alleging that Coinbase offered unregistered securities through staking. Coinbase disputed the claim. Staking is among the ways crypto exchanges earn revenue through service fees.

That July, Coinbase agreed to restrict new staking in California, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin. Maryland reached a similar agreement in October. Those restrictions remained while the state cases continued.

Customers with existing staked assets could keep earning rewards but could not add more funds or reinvest their earnings. Users could also withdraw their crypto, although they could not stake it again.

Other States Continue Staking Cases

A recent study found staking and mining income fell 37% across the wider blockchain industry in the first half of 2026. The figure did not refer specifically to Coinbase.

Alabama, Kentucky, Illinois, South Carolina and Vermont ended their cases in 2025. California, Maryland and Wisconsin still restrict new staking. Washington allows staking but continues to pursue a $4 million penalty. Coinbase also estimates California residents have missed over $89 million in potential rewards since the restrictions began.

No Final Ruling on Staking Law

New Jersey withdrew its order “without prejudice.” That means the bureau can bring another action later. The notice did not decide whether Coinbase staking falls under state securities rules.

The SEC dismissed its separate Coinbase lawsuit in February 2025. Congress has not passed the CLARITY market structure bill. A fresh debate over the CLARITY Act this week centered on crypto oversight following the Binance hack. Coinbase warned in its filing that adverse rulings in remaining state cases could affect its business.

The post New Jersey Clears Coinbase Staking Hurdle, Questions Remain appeared first on Blockonomi.

Getting involved in cryptocurrency was once thought to be a niche activity. Now, millions of investors around the world have at least dabbled in the industry. As it continues to grow, more people are attempting to bridge their traditional financial methods with digital options.

For that reason, a crypto Visa card may be the best way to go. While there are definitely conveniences to these cards, there is a lot more than meets the eye. Read on and you will find out the answers to important questions and determine whether a crypto debit card is right for you.

How Do Crypto Debit Cards Work?

Using a crypto debit card is a lot different from simply monitoring Bitcoin’s price. With a crypto debit card, you do have to pay attention to the current market value but just having a general idea of how much is in your exchange account should be enough.

When you swipe the card, the transaction is either paid for directly with crypto – depending on the merchant – or the requisite amount of crypto is sold and then converted into fiat currency. In any event, these transactions take place in the span of seconds, allowing you to make greater use of your crypto holdings.

Prepaid vs. Linked Wallet Cards

Though there is a litany of different crypto debit cards to choose from, there are generally two types to know about: prepaid vs. linked wallet. The former is only good for the amount you put on the card. It’s a fantastic way to reduce potential losses or to control how much you spend.

Linked wallets, however, take out the required money right from your wallet or exchange account immediately. The money is converted to fiat currency to make transactions happen in real-time. This is great for users who tend to be trading on an active basis and don’t want to convert their crypto holdings into fiat currency manually.

Rewards and Incentives

Much as you would use it to choose a traditional credit card, rewards and incentives should be one of the driving factors when choosing a crypto debit card of your own. After all, why not get the best rewards possible for something that you were going to sign up for anyway?

Rewards can vary widely. For the most part, crypto debit cards will offer anywhere from 1% to 8% back, on average. There may be requirements involved – maintaining a minimum balance or requirements for staking, for example. Higher rewards tend to come with certain requirements, like having a minimum balance or locking some of your tokens into place on the issuer platform for a certain period of time.

Restrictions and Spending Limits

This is where the fine print comes into the equation. Just about every crypto debit card will come with some limitations depending on the issuer. You may have ATM withdrawal limits, transaction ceilings, daily spend caps, and more.

For instance, you may be limited in terms of high-dollar transactions – something like one six-figure payment per payment cycle, for example – so be aware before signing up. Compare the different restrictions and limits and gauge what kind of impact that could potentially have on your card usage.

Expanding Your Wallet

If a crypto debit card sounds like the right option, now is the time to act. The more comfortable you get with your digital assets, the more convenient it becomes to be able to utilize them as an everyday payment method. Before long, you will have total autonomy over your spending and merge your crypto and fiat assets effortlessly.

The post Choosing the Right Crypto Debit Card appeared first on Blockonomi.

XRP network growth appears to have picked up pace even as its price hovers near $1.25. Santiment found that 7,934 new wallets were created on November 1st, which happens to be the sixth-highest daily total of 2026.

That’s notable, especially since Sundays are usually quieter for crypto network activity.

Potential Turning Point

The surge follows a busy week for XRP and came just after the Binance hack, which may have pushed more users toward self-custody and fresh wallets. Santiment said that strong network growth suggests usage is improving while price remains under pressure. The immediate pivot is $1.25, and $1.30 is the first level that would confirm stronger momentum.

If daily new-wallet growth stays above roughly 4,000 and XRP reclaims $1.30, the setup looks more constructive. On the other hand, a drop below $1.20 and growth under 3,000 would weaken that signal.

CryptoPotato recently reported that XRP whale outflows on Binance also surged nearly three times the September 2022 reading. These outflows could ease near-term selling pressure.

Contrarian Opportunity Emerges

XRP and other top caps such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have already been witnessing weakening sentiment for nearly two months. The Binance hack further accelerated the downfall. As prices have fallen and fear has spread across the market, bullish commentary has collapsed. XRP now has just 0.61 bullish comments for every bearish one, while Bitcoin stands at around 0.69.

Ethereum is holding up better at around 1.14, but enthusiasm has still fallen sharply from September. These ratios give a clearer picture of when retail traders become unusually confident or fearful, and right now, fear has clearly swept over the crypto community.

Santiment revealed that the darkest sentiment periods have often created the strongest contrarian opportunities once panic has had time to settle. The community is still reeling from crypto’s largest-ever hack, which makes the current situation particularly difficult. Despite this, if BTC and XRP sentiment stays below 1.0 while prices stop making new lows, a mid-term relief rally could eventually take shape.

“Extreme fear alone does not mark the exact bottom, but fear plus price stabilization has often been a much stronger signal.”

The post 7,934 New XRP Wallets in One Day: Network Activity Defies Sunday Slowdown appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Ethereum remains under pressure near $2.3K after its latest recovery failed to reverse the broader downtrend. With the ascending daily channel already lost, attention is shifting toward nearby demand and the liquidation concentrations beneath the market.

Ethereum Price Analysis: The Daily Chart

The daily chart shows a clear deterioration in Ethereum’s structure following the breakdown below the ascending channel. A subsequent rebound into the $2.44K–$2.52K supply zone was rejected, reinforcing the bearish significance of the broken channel boundary. Since then, ETH has continued to form lower highs and lower lows.

The latest decline produced a sharp wick toward $2.17K, followed by a modest recovery that has struggled to hold above $2.26K. This suggests that buyers are defending the recent lows, but their response has yet to establish a meaningful reversal. The $2.17K–$2.22K region is now an important near-term support area. A sustained break beneath it would expose the psychological $2K level, followed by the broader daily demand zone at approximately $1.82K–$1.98K.

For buyers to improve the outlook, ETH first needs to recover the $2.31K–$2.36K region, where several recent candles consolidated before the latest selloff. However, the more significant barrier remains the $2.44K–$2.52K supply zone. Until that area is reclaimed, recoveries remain vulnerable to renewed selling.

ETH/USDT 4-Hour Chart

On the four-hour timeframe, Ethereum continues to trade within a descending channel. The recent selloff reached the $2.17K–$2.22K demand zone near the channel’s lower boundary, triggering a rebound toward $2.31K. That recovery was subsequently rejected, leaving the price back around $2.25K.

The failure to sustain the bounce preserves the sequence of lower highs and suggests that sellers remain in control of the short-term structure. Another test of the $2.17K–$2.22K support zone appears plausible if ETH cannot regain the $2.30K–$2.31K area. Repeated pressure on this demand zone could increase the risk of a breakdown, although the recent rejection wick shows that buying interest is still present.

Alternatively, a sustained recovery above $2.31K would bring the descending channel’s upper boundary, currently around $2.35K–$2.38K, into focus. Breaking that trendline would weaken the immediate bearish setup and could allow a broader recovery toward the $2.44K–$2.52K supply zone.

Sentiment Analysis

The Binance ETH/USDT liquidation heatmap highlights estimated liquidation concentrations below the current price. A nearby band sits around $2.15K–$2.20K, broadly overlapping the support region identified on the price charts. A larger, brighter concentration is visible around $2K–$2.05K.

This positioning makes the area just above $2K particularly relevant if Ethereum loses its recent lows. A move into these levels could trigger long liquidations and amplify downside volatility. However, the heatmap identifies potential liquidation exposure rather than guaranteed price targets or confirmed buying support.

Above the market, substantial concentrations remain around $2.8K–$3K, but these are distant from the current structure. For now, the nearby downside clusters and repeated failed recoveries keep the focus on support. A recovery above the four-hour descending channel would be the first technical development to ease that pressure.

The post Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Recovers to $2.3K, but Bears Still Eye $2K appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The cryptocurrency market was hit hard by the recent $6.3 billion Binance hack, yet Hyperliquid’s native token defied the broader pullback and posted a nearly 10% gain over the past week.

However, one popular analyst warned that the asset could soon nosedive by double digits, while a key factor supports the bearish scenario.

Drop Below $60 Incoming?

As of press time, HYPE is changing hands just below $85, down from the local peak of about $96 recorded before the Binance incident. Nonetheless, it remains firmly in the green on both the weekly and fortnightly timeframes.

According to Ali Martinez, though, the asset is forming a potential head-and-shoulders top on the 12-hour chart, pointing to a possible 22% correction. He went even further, suggesting that a sustained close below the $76-$78 neckline could be followed by a crash toward a 10-week low of $59.

The analyst believes a recovery above the right shoulder’s high of the structure, at near $90, would weaken the bearish setup. “The pattern isn’t confirmed until Hyperliquid breaks support. A bounce from $76–$78 could keep the formation from playing out,” he added.

FOUR | Crypto Spaces also presented a pessimistic view. The analyst warned that the recent weakness has tilted the balance in favor of the bears, arguing that a drop below $77 could trigger a collapse toward $60.

Token Talk, for their part, claimed HYPE has reached a critical juncture, identifying the $76-$77 range as a key support zone bulls need to defend.

“If we keep bouncing between these levels, cool. But if support finally gives up, I don’t think the downside is going to be pretty,” they stated.

The Red Signal

According to CoinGlass, HYPE has recorded positive exchange netflows for six consecutive days, indicating that more tokens have been moved to centralized platforms than withdrawn to self-custody wallets. This development is typically interpreted as bearish since it increases immediate selling pressure.

Exchange netflows have been a hot topic lately. Somewhat expected, the $6.3 billion Binance hack undermined the credibility of the world’s leading crypto exchange and led to massive outflows. Once withdrawals were restored, users pulled nearly $4.65 billion from the platform in under 10 hours, far exceeding the roughly $1 billion in deposits recorded over the same period.

Latest data shows that Binance’s netflows for the last seven days have reached almost -$12 billion, while some of its competitors saw significant inflows and increased their market share. OKX, for instance, attracted roughly $360 million in net flows over the past week, while Bybit recorded approximately $140 million.

The post Hyperliquid (HYPE) Risks a 30% Price Crash: What Can Prevent the Collapse? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

The world’s second-largest crypto asset by market cap has had a rough couple of weeks. But its exchange reserves have dropped to around 14.5 million ETH as of November 2, levels last seen in 2016.

That’s a sharp decline from the 2020 peak of roughly 35 million, meaning about 20.5 million Ethereum, or 58.6%, has left tracked exchanges, according to CryptoQuant.

Supply Shock?

Binance is seeing a similar trend, as its reserves fell to 3.08 million ETH, approaching levels last recorded in late 2020. Compared with its 2025 peak of 4.9 million, the exchange has lost around 1.82 million, a 37.1% drop. Binance now holds approximately 21.2% of total exchange reserves, while the remaining 11.42 million ETH sits across other tracked platforms.

The decline means there is considerably less ETH readily available for spot selling. Lower exchange reserves don’t guarantee a price increase, but they could ease selling pressure and create more favorable conditions for price appreciation if buying demand picks up. With fewer coins sitting on exchanges, renewed buying could also have a stronger impact on ETH’s price.

Crypto Patel said that Ethereum, currently around $2,245, is approaching an important decision zone. The analyst believes current levels offer a good entry opportunity, but the preferred accumulation range is between $1,800 and $1,900, where a Bullish Order Block and Fair Value Gap overlap. The analyst wants to see a liquidity sweep and bullish confirmation before entering. If the setup plays out as expected, their long-term price targets are $2,700, $3,200, $4,400, $6,000, and $10,000.

Persistent ETF Outflows

But the institutional side of things continues to be gloomy. US spot Ethereum ETFs recorded their worst month since launch, with investors pulling out $1.61 billion in October, according to SoSoValue data. This surpassed the previous record of $1.42 billion in outflows set last November. October was particularly rough, as the funds saw just three days of net inflows. These were October 13, 21, and 23, bringing in only $24.84 million, $14.96 million, and $4.35 million, respectively.

The selling pressure also carried into November, with another $139.8 million withdrawn on the 2nd.

The post Ethereum Supply on Exchanges Hits a Decade Low: Is ETH Preparing for a Major Move? appeared first on CryptoPotato.

As lucrative as the crypto market is, many individuals and businesses remain hesitant to enter the ecosystem. The reason? For many, it is the fear of falling victim to security exploits. Others worry about privacy, especially because blockchain transactions are publicly accessible.

What if there were tools that could make crypto investing more secure and private? This article highlights seven tools designed to help crypto investors protect their assets and privacy. It also outlines best practices every crypto investor should follow to stay safe in the crypto market. But first, let’s discuss why privacy and security tools are essential for crypto users.

Why Do You Need Privacy and Security Crypto Tools?

In traditional finance (TradFi), users can often rely on their financial institutions or customer support teams to secure their accounts and help recover funds from fraudulent transactions. But this is not always the case with crypto. Confirmed transactions on most blockchains are generally irreversible. This stresses the need for security tools that help crypto investors move assets from one place to another while reducing the risk of losing them to malicious actors.

Why use privacy tools? Privacy tools focus on providing privacy to user accounts. The blockchain in itself is a public ledger, and most crypto tokens exist on these networks. Hackers use this as a tool to identify wallets with massive crypto holdings. Afterward, they can determine where these users keep their assets (exchanges, wallets, etc.) and launch targeted attacks. So a user using privacy tools is already a step ahead of these malicious actors. They get access to tools that help to mask their identity, on-chain activities, and metadata.

The good thing is, when investors have their privacy sorted, they are only steps away from achieving significant account security.

Why use security tools? Even if a crypto investor becomes a target of malicious actors, security tools can help protect their accounts and funds. Some tools simulate transactions before execution to identify potentially malicious interactions and warn users about associated risks.

Top 6 Privacy and Security Tools for Crypto Investors

Here’s a list of seven privacy and security tools crypto investors can use to help protect their accounts, assets, and personal information.

Proton Mail

Proton Mail is an email service provider that offers enhanced privacy and security to users. Today, most crypto platforms require users to link an email address to their accounts during registration. The concern is that conventional email services like Gmail and Outlook do not offer end-to-end encryption by default, meaning providers may have access to users’ email contents. Proton Mail addresses this concern through its privacy-focused features.

The platform’s goal is to give users greater control over their data. Through its zero-access encryption, not even Proton can read the contents of emails stored in users’ inboxes. This helps crypto investors because even if Proton’s servers are breached, the encryption helps prevent attackers from reading stored emails containing sensitive information, such as verification codes and password reset links. In this sense, this privacy feature adds another layer of protection to crypto users’ accounts.

Another feature Proton Mail offers that adds a layer of security and privacy is its hide-my-email aliases. This feature allows users to create unique email aliases for particular exchanges or platforms. This way, if an exchange’s database gets compromised, the user’s primary email address remains hidden, reducing their exposure to spam and targeted phishing attacks. This feature is available through Proton Mail’s paid plans.

Phishing attacks are among the most common ways hackers target crypto investors. Proton Mail helps users counter this with phishing protection features that detect suspicious emails, block known phishing attempts, and warn users about potentially malicious links.

Those already using conventional email service providers like Gmail can also migrate their existing emails and contacts to Proton Mail using its Easy Switch feature. After that, they can continue receiving new emails in their Proton Mail inbox by setting up forwarding from their previous provider.

Beyond security, Proton Mail is also easy to use for everyday communication. It works like any modern email service, with web and mobile apps, an integrated calendar, and access to secure video conferencing through the Proton ecosystem.

The free plan includes 1 GB of storage and one email address. For users who need more, Mail Plus offers 15 GB of storage, up to 10 email addresses, 10 hide-my-email aliases, and support for a custom email domain.

For investors looking to protect more of their digital lives, Proton Unlimited bundles Proton Mail with Proton VPN, Proton Drive, and Proton Pass under a single subscription plan.

Pros

• Easy to use for everyday email
• Free plans available.
• Custom email domain on paid plans
• Over 100 million Proton accounts globally.

Cons

• Some advanced features, such as custom domains and aliases are part of paid plans.

Best for: Private email communication and protection against phishing and email-related data exposure.

Check out the latest Proton Mail deals here.

The section is sponsored by Proton Mail. 

GoPlus Security

As its name implies, GoPlus Security is a platform that prioritizes security for Web3 users and AI agents.

GoPlus Security aims to detect and alert users to potential security risks before transactions are executed. This matters because confirmed blockchain transactions are generally irreversible. When users interact with decentralized applications (dApps), smart contracts, wallet addresses, or websites, GoPlus Security offers tools to assess potential risks and help users avoid losses. The platform can identify warning signs associated with rug pulls, malicious wallet addresses, and honeypot cryptocurrencies (tokens that allow users to buy but prevent them from selling).

For AI agents, GoPlus Security offers AgentGuard, a tool that scans AI agent skills for potential security threats, including malicious instructions and suspicious code.

The firm’s services are accessible through a browser extension and mobile app. Notable crypto platforms like OKX Wallet and DEX Screener have also integrated GoPlus Security’s services.

Pros

• Mobile app.
• Browser extension.
• Over 28 million wallet users reported in 2025.
• Security tools for AI agents.

Cons

• Primarily focused on security, not privacy.

Best for: Web3 Transaction Security and AI Agent Protection.​

Blockaid

Blockaid is a Web3 security platform that helps detect and prevent scams and exploits before they happen.

Crypto wallets, decentralized applications (dApps), and on-chain marketplaces can integrate Blockaid’s security solutions to protect their users. Before a crypto investor signs a transaction, Blockaid can simulate its execution to identify potential risks. It then warns users if the transaction could drain the wallet or enable other malicious activity.

Since many crypto scams originate from Web2 platforms, Blockaid also scans online sources for threats before they move on-chain. The security platform employs machine learning and AI to monitor blockchain activity, identify suspicious patterns, and detect potential exploits.

Popular blockchain platforms, such as Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, and OpenSea, have integrated Blockaid to strengthen their security. According to the company’s website, its technology has helped prevent approximately $13.1 billion in theft across supported platforms and wallets.

Pros

• Established track record.
• Integration with major wallets and marketplaces.
• Pre-execution transaction simulation.

Cons

• Primarily available through integrated platforms rather than as a standalone consumer tool.

Best for: Web3 scam detection and transaction security.

Web3 Antivirus

Web3 Antivirus (W3A) is a blockchain security service that protects users when they interact with Web3 applications and helps businesses manage security and compliance risks. Instead of operating like conventional computer antivirus software that scans for malware, Web3 Antivirus focuses on identifying threats associated with crypto wallets, smart contracts, and blockchain transactions.

The platform serves individuals and businesses. Individuals can access W3A through browser extensions available for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and other supported Chromium-based browsers. These extensions help detect phishing websites, honeypot tokens, malicious transactions, and other potential threats. The platform also includes a security dashboard with features for assessing wallet risks, reviewing transaction history, and revoking high-risk token approvals.

Businesses can integrate the Web3 Antivirus API into their applications to strengthen security, assess wallet addresses, and support compliance checks. The platform also offers transaction simulation, which allows users to identify potential risks before approving blockchain transactions.

Pros

• Easy-to-use security tools.
• Browser extensions for major browsers.
• Supports pre-execution transaction simulation.
• Security solutions for individuals and businesses.

Cons

• Individual users primarily access its protection through browser-based tools.

Best for: Detecting Web3 scams and protecting browser-based wallet interactions.

The Onion Router (TOR)

The Onion Router (Tor) is a privacy-focused network that helps conceal users’ IP addresses, locations, and online activities from surveillance and tracking. Crypto investors can use Tor to access websites and crypto-related services with greater network privacy, although it does not make blockchain transactions themselves anonymous.

The network achieves this through onion routing, a process that wraps users’ internet traffic in multiple layers of encryption, like the layers of an onion. It further obscures internet activity by routing connections through three different nodes. When users initiate a connection, it first passes through the entry node (Guard), which knows the user’s IP address but not their final destination. The intermediate node (Middle) receives the connection next but cannot identify both the user and the destination. Finally, the exit node removes the final layer of Tor encryption and forwards the traffic to its destination without revealing the user’s original IP address.

There is also the Tor Browser, which allows users to browse the internet while reducing third-party tracking and surveillance. Although internet service providers (ISPs) generally cannot see which websites users visit through Tor, they may still detect that users are using Tor. Tor also does not conceal information that users voluntarily disclose to websites or crypto platforms.

Pros

• Greater online anonymity and privacy.
• Free and open-source.
• Helps circumvent internet censorship and tracking.

Cons

• Slower browsing speeds because traffic routes through multiple relays.
• Does not conceal publicly visible blockchain transactions.

Best for: Online anonymity and network privacy.

CoinJoin

CoinJoin is a Bitcoin privacy service that helps obscure transaction histories. Bitcoin runs on a public network, so anyone can view users’ transactions and wallet balances. CoinJoin improves privacy by combining multiple users’ transactions into a single transaction. This makes it more difficult to link individual senders and receivers on the blockchain.

The technique makes CoinJoin a suitable option for investors or businesses that want to reduce the traceability of their Bitcoin transactions. Unlike conventional mixing services, CoinJoin allows participants to retain control of their funds throughout the process. However, it does not guarantee complete anonymity, as transactions remain publicly visible and can still be analyzed.

CoinJoin is not a standalone application. Users access the feature through compatible Bitcoin wallets, such as Wasabi Wallet. Its availability, fees, and ease of use depend on the wallet and coordination service involved.

Pros

• Privacy-focused.
• Non-custodial transaction mixing.
• Reduces the traceability of Bitcoin transactions.

Cons

• Primarily focused on Bitcoin.
• Privacy is not guaranteed.
• Some exchanges may flag or restrict CoinJoin-related transactions.

Best for: Bitcoin investors seeking greater transaction privacy.

Best Practices for Crypto Security and Privacy

Even with the best tools, crypto investors can fall prey to exploits if they don’t take precautions to protect their security and privacy. Here are some best practices to help users navigate the crypto industry safely:

Use Encrypted Emails

Most crypto platforms require users to provide an email address, which often serves as an account recovery method when resetting passwords. Some platforms also use email to authorize withdrawals. Since email accounts hold such important responsibilities, it is essential that investors use secure email services like Proton Mail and consider using aliases to protect their primary addresses and reduce exposure to phishing attacks. Encrypted email services also help protect the contents of messages from unauthorized access.

Verify URLs Manually

Investors lose substantial amounts of money to phishing attacks involving malicious websites. Hackers have used this tactic for years, deceiving unsuspecting users with website URLs that closely resemble legitimate ones. If users enter sensitive information or approve malicious wallet transactions on these websites, attackers may steal their credentials or crypto assets. A simple but important way to stay safe is to verify URLs before visiting websites or connecting wallets. Whenever possible, access crypto platforms through trusted bookmarks or manually entered official addresses.

Use Authenticator Apps

Many traditional financial platforms use SMS as a form of two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect accounts. However, this method is vulnerable to SIM-swapping and social engineering attacks. Crypto users should therefore consider authenticator apps like Authy,  Google Authenticator, or Yubico Authenticator instead of relying solely on SMS verification. Where supported, passkeys or hardware security keys offer stronger phishing protection.

Enable Anti-Phishing Codes

Scammers often send malicious emails disguised as official messages from crypto platforms to lure unsuspecting users. An anti-phishing code is a custom combination of letters or numbers that participating crypto platforms include in their legitimate emails. This helps users identify suspicious messages when the expected code is missing or incorrect. However, a matching code should not be treated as an absolute guarantee that an email is genuine.

Split Assets Between Hot and Cold Wallets

Crypto investors should split their holdings between hot and cold wallets. A hot wallet, which connects to the internet, is best for performing daily transactions and frequent crypto trades. Investors should consider keeping only the amount needed for regular transactions in hot wallets.

On the other hand, cold wallets, which keep private keys offline, are generally better suited for long-term crypto storage. Investors can allocate a larger portion of their holdings to cold wallets, depending on their trading needs and ability to manage them securely.

Another important practice is keeping wallet software up to date. This is because updates may fix security vulnerabilities that hackers could otherwise exploit.

Conclusion

As more people invest in crypto, the need for privacy and security remains essential as they explore the space. This article has highlighted various tools that can help users protect their assets and personal information. While these tools can provide valuable protection, they do not eliminate the need for users to exercise due diligence as they navigate the vast crypto market.

The post Essential Privacy and Security Tools for Crypto Investors appeared first on CryptoPotato.