The shift in AI agent economics emphasizes optimizing context management and caching to reduce costs, impacting AI deployment strategies.

The post Agent Arena finds AI agents read about 93 tokens for every one they write appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Solana Labs' incubator fosters innovation by supporting diverse teams, potentially accelerating Web3 and Web2 integration into the Solana ecosystem.

The post Solana Labs opens applications for Incubator Cohort 6 appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The dismissal highlights the need for a unified federal regulatory framework to prevent financial losses and inconsistencies across states.

The post New Jersey drops staking lawsuit against Coinbase, clearing path for users to resume appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Injective's Institutional Rail could reshape blockchain transaction dynamics, prioritizing institutional access and potentially impacting network fairness.

The post Injective unveils Institutional Rail, a dedicated gateway for banks and funds appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Anthropic's massive net loss highlights the volatility of tech valuations and underscores the challenges of balancing rapid growth with financial sustainability.

The post Anthropic reports $104B net loss in first nine months of 2026 appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Nvidia, Nike Join 50 Companies Blocking OKX–ICE Stock Token Push

Fifty public companies have now objected to having their shares tokenized on OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), as the venue’s first 30-day notice window closes Tuesday.

The venue’s Oct. 30 notice added 12 objectors, including Nvidia, Costco, Nike, Micron and Reddit. They join Microsoft, Alphabet, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, Broadcom, Verizon and Intel, among others. Of the 62 companies OKXICE initially proposed to tokenize, 43, or about 69%, have objected, according to a CoinDesk tally.

The list has grown fast: nine objectors on Oct. 15, 16 on Oct. 19, 38 on Oct. 28 and 50 two days later.

How the opt-out works

The objections stem from the SEC’s five-year “Innovation Exemption,” issued Sept. 17, which lets tokenized securities venues (TSVs) trade blockchain versions of U.S. stocks through automated market makers without registering as exchanges. When an unaffiliated third party tokenizes a company’s stock, the venue must notify the issuer, which then has 30 days to object in writing. Silence counts as consent, and the order offers no way to object after the window closes.

OKXICE plans 24/7 trading of tokens backed one-for-one by shares, paired against stablecoins such as USDC in permissioned pools on OKX’s X Layer blockchain.

The objecting companies have not given reasons. JPMorgan said it remains encouraged by tokenization but wants to be thoughtful about how its shares are represented and traded. “Given how easy the opt-out is, the list of objectors is likely to keep growing,” Olivia Vande Woude, head of tokenization at Ava Labs, said.

Nasdaq’s role

The fight has also taken on a competitive edge. An executive at a Nasdaq-listed company told Crypto in America that a Nasdaq representative urged the company to object and offered a call to explain why. Nasdaq declined to comment on the claim but reiterated that TSVs are not the best path to tokenization.

Nasdaq argues that venues outside the National Market System could fragment liquidity and lack real-time best-price display and consolidated-tape reporting. It is building its own issuer-centric Nasdaq Equity Token with Kraken, targeted for the second quarter of 2027.

A full-page Wall Street Journal ad urging CEOs to opt out, headlined “YOUR STOCK. THEIR TOKENS. YOUR PROBLEM.,” linked to Nasdaq’s FAQ via QR code. Conservative-leaning nonprofit Common Sense Leadership Fund paid for it. Nasdaq said it had no connection to the ad and never funded the group.

OKXICE co-chair and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called the objections a “natural response.” 

“We are at the very beginning of the rollout of fundamentally different market structure,” he said last week.

For context, a tokenized stock is a blockchain token backed one-for-one by a real share, which a third party holds. OKXICE lets it trade around the clock against stablecoins like USDC. Under the SEC’s Innovation Exemption, the venue can list these tokens without the issuing company’s consent, unless the company objects within 30 days.

This post Nvidia, Nike Join 50 Companies Blocking OKX–ICE Stock Token Push first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin Freezes Deposits and Withdrawals Due to Ongoing Security Incident, Losses Estimated Near $40 Million

Brazil’s largest cryptocurrency exchange kept deposits and withdrawals suspended on Monday after a security incident in one of its systems. The shutdown left customers unable to send funds into or out of the platform while the company worked to restore operations.

Mercado Bitcoin said in a statement posted to X that it had identified and contained the incident. The company said customers suffered no losses and that no data had leaked. It described the suspension as a precaution. Its teams are investigating, tracing assets and coordinating with authorities, the company said. According to Bloomberg, the company said it would absorb all losses.

The company has not said which system was breached, how much was taken or when it will reopen. Its current statements gave no total loss figure and no timetable.

Mercado Bitcoin has since published destination addresses tied to transactions from the incident, covering Bitcoin, Ethereum-compatible networks, Solana, Stellar and Tron. It said it shared the addresses for identification and tracking purposes. Blockchain security firm Hypernative has put preliminary estimates of suspicious transfers above $40 million across several blockchains. The exchange has not confirmed that figure.

Other analysts are citing higher figures and that the sweeping is ongoing.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has entered the response. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on X at 10:06 a.m. ET that the company had frozen more than 4.5 million USDT linked to the incident. Tether invested $20 million in Mercado Bitcoin back in July, when it said the exchange served 4.5 million users.

A rough week for Mercado and other exchanges

The incident comes days after one of the largest crypto thefts in recent memory. On Oct. 29, attackers reached $6.3 billion in assets at Binance after compromising an engineer’s laptop and gaining access to internal systems used to process withdrawals. 

Binance said it found no evidence that private keys were exposed. By Nov. 1, it had replaced 95 percent of the stolen assets and begun restoring withdrawals in phases.

On the law enforcement front, the FBI has attributed the attack to North Korea, and the U.S. Secret Service is working with Circle to trace and freeze funds. Tether reported about $1.57 billion in USDT frozen, and Circle said it had frozen more than $800 million in USDC in coordination with authorities. 

Binance has said it found additional points of breach beyond the initial compromise, which it originally attributed to a single engineer’s laptop. The exchange has not yet published a full post-mortem explaining how the attackers prepared and executed the operation, which some estimates suggest took at least 36 hours of groundwork. 

The destination of roughly $3.3 billion in stolen funds that were not frozen has also not been fully explained, and the exchange has not detailed what it expects to recover from that pool. Investigators continue to track wallet activity across ten blockchains.

This post Brazil’s Mercado Bitcoin Freezes Deposits and Withdrawals Due to Ongoing Security Incident, Losses Estimated Near $40 Million first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Binance Reopens Withdrawals as Hack Recovery Enters Second Week 

Binance restarted customer withdrawals on Sunday, four days after hackers drained roughly $6.3 billion from its hot wallets in the largest crypto theft on record. 

The exchange reopened in stages over the weekend, starting with bitcoin and expanding to 15 networks. The move marked the first real test of whether the platform could absorb a loss of that size without freezing its customers out for longer.

The recovery push began Saturday. In its third recovery update, Binance said it had replenished 90% of the impacted amount with company funds. The exchange drew on part of its Secure Asset Fund for Users, a portion of its futures insurance fund and its corporate treasury to buy replacement tokens. 

The futures fund contribution drew particular attention, since Binance described the remaining balance as a regulatory requirement. Binance also published a new proof-of-reserves snapshot dated October 31, giving users a baseline to check their balances against.

Sunday’s reopening began at 06:00 UTC with BTC. Binance then added ETH, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, Tron, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, Zcash, TON and Sui. Between 06:00 and 15:30 UTC, the exchange processed about $4.65 billion in withdrawals against roughly $1.01 billion in deposits. 

That produced a net outflow near $3.64 billion, equal to about 2.1% of the $171 billion in assets Binance reported in its late-October proof of reserves.

Deposits stayed open throughout the rollout, and the exchange said temporary delays were possible during the initial surge in volume.

Binance said its Sunday update raised coverage to 95% of the impacted amount. The remaining 5% sits in less liquid tokens outside the top ten assets on its proof-of-reserves list. Sourcing those tokens at the required scale takes more time, and the exchange said it is working with industry partners and over-the-counter desks to complete the purchases. Binance has committed to covering the full amount, and it has repeated that users will not bear the financial impact of the theft.

On Monday, Binance said the full zero-knowledge proof for the October 31 snapshot is complete. Users holding BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD or ZEC can run the exchange’s verifier to confirm their balances are backed at least 1:1. 

The verifier is open source, and the exchange has pointed users to a step-by-step guide. 

The exchange plans another snapshot covering more tokens on November 4, with a proof expected to take 40 to 50 hours to generate. A further withdrawal phase is scheduled for Tuesday, and the exchange said it would share details once the rollout is ready.

Binance hack background

On the law enforcement front, the FBI has attributed the attack to North Korea, and the U.S. Secret Service is working with Circle to trace and freeze funds. Tether reported about $1.57 billion in USDT frozen, and Circle said it had frozen more than $800 million in USDC in coordination with authorities. 

The market reacted sharply to the breach. Bitcoin fell about 5% to below $77,000 in the hours after the attack, and shares of Coinbase,Robinhood, Strategy, and Strive all declined as investors weighed the risk of exchange-level losses across the sector.

Binance has said it found additional points of breach beyond the initial compromise, which it originally attributed to a single engineer’s laptop. The exchange has not yet published a full post-mortem explaining how the attackers prepared and executed the operation, which some estimates suggest took at least 36 hours of groundwork. 

The destination of roughly $3.3 billion in stolen funds that were not frozen has also not been fully explained, and the exchange has not detailed what it expects to recover from that pool. Investigators continue to track wallet activity across ten blockchains.

This post Binance Reopens Withdrawals as Hack Recovery Enters Second Week  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

▶

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitwise’s André Dragosch: Bitcoin’s “Fair Value” of $197,000

Bitwise’s André Dragosch joins Spencer Nichols to explain why Bitcoin tends to move before shifts in global liquidity, acting as the canary in the liquidity coal mine, and why his global money supply model puts Bitcoin’s fair value at $197,000 today. They also dig into recession risk, the Fed’s next move, and how capital rotating out of precious metals could help Bitcoin catch up to the money supply.

Host: Spencer Nichols — Bitcoin Magazine
André Dragosch — Bitwise Director, Head of Research – Europe

Chapters:
00:00 Why French Bond Yields Are Rising
03:13 Tightening Financial Conditions Go Global
08:04 What the Dollar and an AI Bubble Mean for Bitcoin
12:45 Contagion Risk in the AI Credit Complex
17:23 Bitcoin, the Canary in the Liquidity Coal Mine
21:21 The Fed’s Dilemma and the Debt Burden
25:42 China’s Slowdown and Recession Risk
30:18 Will Bitcoin Decouple From Stocks?
33:47 Bitcoin’s $197K Fair Value
37:43 Bretton Woods III and Bitcoin as Global Money
42:07 Bitcoin’s Reserve Currency Call Option
46:48 Bitcoin-Backed Credit and Strategy as a Bank

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 Bitwise’s André Dragosch: Bitcoin’s “Fair Value” of $197,000 first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mark Mason.

▶

Bitcoin Magazine

Adam Back: Pension Funds Are Bitcoin’s “Third Wave” of Adoption

The first wave of Bitcoin adoption was individuals. The second was the ETFs. Adam Back, CEO & Co-Founder of Blockstream, explains why the third wave of model portfolios, managed funds and pension funds is still largely to come, and how Swiss banks are getting ready for it.

Chapters:
00:00 Why Blockstream Opened an Office in Lugano
01:20 Why Blockstream Started Offering Consulting
02:01 Swiss Banks Want Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Custody
03:04 Tokenized Money Market Funds vs. Stablecoins
04:13 Tokenized Shares on Liquid and Blockstream AMP
05:55 Where Institutions Still Get Stuck
07:00 Build In-House or Use a Custodian?
08:01 How Regulation Shapes Bitcoin Custody
10:01 Basel Rules and the Cost of Holding Bitcoin
10:40 The Three Waves of 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 Adam Back: Pension Funds Are Bitcoin’s “Third Wave” of Adoption first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mark Mason.

BNB exchange-traded funds (ETFs) led October inflows among US-listed spot crypto ETFs tracked by SoSoValue, with the largest allocation arriving weeks before Binance suffered a record $6.3 billion cryptocurrency hack. The US-listed VanEck BNB ETF attracted $99 million during the month, ahead of $35 million for NEAR and $19 million for XRP, according to SoSoValue…

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

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

The October 27 release requires confirmed peer inputs for splices by default and improves recovery when a channel must close with funding still pending.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

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

Glassnode’s latest review puts September ETH vaults behind staking and USD curators ahead of Treasuries, despite growth in its tracked balance.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

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

The flaw was patched in April, but a malicious announcement already saved on an affected node needs separate removal.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

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

CryptoKeyhole’s October 1–30 series imply more ETH counted as active stake while the wider consensus balance shrank.

Read the full story on CryptoSlate

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

The HYPE price stands at $89.42, around 13 percent above its level 24 hours ago, while bitcoin has lost 4.1 percent and ether 5.3 percent. The reason lies not in the token itself but in the trading venue behind it: Binance halted deposits and withdrawals overnight, and trading volume on the perpetuals exchange Hyperliquid has risen to $15.0 billion in 24 hours. This article sets out what is established, what remains open and what matters for you as an investor in Germany.

HYPE rises 13 percent while bitcoin and ether slip

The price move can be read in two places, and the figures differ slightly. According to CoinGecko market data, HYPE is at $89.42, 13.2 percent higher than 24 hours earlier. Measured against the previous day's close, which the exchange itself uses as its reference, the gain is 13.4 percent, starting from $78.74. Both figures are deliberately shown side by side here rather than merged into one neat number: exchanges and data providers set the daily cut-off at different points, and the two-tenths difference is precisely that.

Over a week, the gain is 18.3 percent. HYPE's market capitalisation is $21.4 billion, placing the token tenth among the largest crypto assets.

For comparison, the other large assets over the same period: bitcoin trades at $76,781, down 4.1 percent; ether at $2,194.95, down 5.3 percent; and solana at $93.80, down 6.2 percent. Only a few assets outside stablecoins are in positive territory, among them TRON with a gain of 8.0 percent.

Why a gain in a falling market needs explaining

A single token rising 13 percent while the two largest crypto assets fall 4 to 5 percent runs against the usual mechanics. Normally bitcoin and ether drag the rest of the market with them, in both directions. When that link breaks, the trigger usually lies in something that affects that one asset specifically, not the market as a whole. In HYPE's case, that something is neither a product launch nor an approval, but the situation at the largest centralised crypto exchange.

Binance halts deposits and withdrawals and pledges to cover losses

Binance says it detected a security incident and then temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals. The exchange said user funds were fully safe, that it would cover any losses incurred, and that it would resume withdrawals once the incident had been fully investigated. Binance gave no timetable. Trading on the platform continues; only moving funds off the exchange has been halted. The withdrawal pause is the point at which the incident becomes practical for investors.

There is no confirmed figure yet for the size of the outflow. Estimates from various industry services range from around $2.8 billion to more than $5 billion, and the higher figures in some cases refer to total holdings in monitored addresses rather than to proven loot. Binance itself has not confirmed any amount. In parallel, the issuers of the two large dollar stablecoins, Tether and Circle, have frozen funds; Binance put the amount secured at more than $2.5 billion.

This range is not careless reporting but the state of play in an ongoing investigation. For assessing the HYPE price, the exact sum is secondary in any case. What matters is that withdrawals at the largest centralised exchange are not possible for an unspecified period.

What a withdrawal pause means in practice

Anyone holding funds at an exchange owns a claim against that company, not the coins themselves. As long as withdrawals are running, the difference is barely noticeable. Once withdrawals are halted, it becomes visible immediately: the balance shows up in the overview but cannot be moved. Traders who depend on constant availability move in such phases to venues where funds stay in their own wallet.

Perp DEX explained: how it differs from a centralised exchange

A perp DEX is a decentralised trading venue for perpetual futures, where orders run through a protocol on a blockchain and funds remain in a wallet whose keys the user holds.

A perpetual futures contract, known in the market as a perpetual, is a derivative on a price with no expiry date. It is continuously aligned with the spot price, and this alignment happens via the funding rate: a payment that flows at regular intervals between holders of long and short positions. If the contract trades above the spot price, the long side pays the short side, and vice versa.

The difference from a centralised exchange concerns precisely the point that mattered overnight. At a centralised exchange, funds sit with the company, which holds, settles and pays them out. On a perp DEX, they sit in the user's wallet, and a pause by the operator cannot freeze them. In return, there is no deposit protection, no customer support with liability and no one to make good a shortfall. Anyone moving there swaps counterparty risk for technology and self-responsibility risk. Which platforms in this field are worth considering, and how they differ on fees and leverage, is shown in our perp DEX comparison.

Our count: HYPE is the third-largest market on Hyperliquid

To answer whether the price rise is backed by real trading, we counted the state of every market on Hyperliquid ourselves rather than taking a figure from press coverage. The basis is the protocol's public market data across all 235 perpetual futures markets. cryptoticker.io compiled this analysis itself on October 30, 2026.

The result: across all 235 markets combined, $15.0 billion was traded in 24 hours. The HYPE market alone accounts for $2.80 billion of that, or 18.7 percent of all trading on the platform. Only bitcoin, with $5.61 billion and 37.4 percent, and ether, with $2.98 billion and 19.9 percent, rank ahead of it. Behind it come Zcash with 5.7 percent and solana with 2.8 percent.

That the platform's own token is its third-largest market after bitcoin and ether, carrying almost as much volume as ether, is the real anomaly of the night. According to CoinGecko market data, HYPE trades $3.21 billion in 24 hours across all venues. The larger part of that trading therefore takes place on the perpetuals exchange whose token it is.

Open interest of $1.94 billion on HYPE

Volume alone says little about how much capital is tied up in a move. Another measure covers that: open interest, the total of all open contracts that have not yet been closed. High volume with low open interest means a lot is traded and quickly closed again. High open interest means positions stay open.

According to our count, 21.66 million HYPE are held in open contracts on the HYPE market. At the current price, that is equivalent to around $1.94 billion. This figure measures notional value, not the capital committed: anyone using leverage posts only a fraction of it as collateral. Accordingly, a relatively small price move is enough to force some of these positions to close.

Why this number matters for the downside

High open interest cuts both ways. As long as the price rises, it supports the move, because follow-on buying happens with leverage. If the price turns, the same leverage works against the move, because collateral has to be topped up or positions unwound. The direction in which risk is currently skewed can be read from the funding rate.

Funding rate at around 180 percent a year: the long side pays

According to our count, the funding rate on the HYPE market is about 0.0002 per hour and positive. Positive means that anyone positioned long pays the short side. Annualised, the hourly figure equates to around 180 percent. This annual figure is an arithmetic construct, not a forecast, as the rate changes every hour; but it makes the order of magnitude tangible.

A positive funding rate this high is a robust indication that long positions are tightly packed. The contract trades well above the spot price, and the protocol makes holding the crowded side more expensive until the situation balances out. For you, that means two things: the inflow is real and visible in the numbers. But it is also expensively paid for, and therefore vulnerable as soon as the move stalls.

What a high funding rate says about holding costs

Anyone holding a long position for days pays this rate continuously. At an order of magnitude of 180 percent a year, holding costs add up to around half a percent a day, regardless of how the price moves. A position held for four weeks thus costs a high double-digit percentage in funding alone. That is why perpetuals are traded in practice as a short-term instrument and not as a substitute for a holding in your portfolio.

Liquidation explained: the protocol force-closes leveraged positions

A liquidation is the forced closure of a leveraged position once the posted collateral no longer covers the loss. The process runs automatically and without warning.

The mechanism is simple and unpleasant in its effect. Anyone trading at ten times leverage posts a tenth of the position's value. If the price moves around ten percent against the position, the collateral is used up and the position is closed. The stake is then lost, even if the price is back at its starting level an hour later. HYPE has moved more than 13 percent over the past 24 hours; a countermove of that size is therefore enough to hit leveraged positions in series.

It gets unpleasant because liquidations reinforce each other. Each forced closure of a long position is a sale that pushes the price down further and brings the next position to its threshold. Exactly this chain reaction played out market-wide overnight, as bitcoin and ether slipped.

Ether funding is negative, bitcoin funding slightly positive

Comparing funding rates on the same platform shows how differently the market is positioned at present. According to our count, the rate on the bitcoin market is about plus 11 percent a year, close to neutral. On the ether market it is negative, at about minus 51 percent a year. Negative here means the short side pays the long side, because more capital is betting on falling prices.

This produces a fairly clear picture. In bitcoin, positioning is largely balanced; in ether, bets on further losses dominate; and in HYPE, capital is crowding onto the opposite side. Three markets, three different directions, all on the same platform.

MiCA: a fully decentralised protocol falls outside its scope

For investors in Germany, the legal classification is the decisive difference between a centralised exchange and a perp DEX. The European Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, MiCA for short, governs the authorisation of crypto-asset service providers. Anyone within its scope needs a licence; in Germany, BaFin grants that licence and supervises these providers.

Recital 22 of the regulation states that crypto-asset services provided in a fully decentralised manner without any intermediary do not fall within its scope. This is not a stand-alone exemption, however, but an aid to interpreting the regulation's reach. In the view of the European securities regulator ESMA, whether a service is actually provided without an intermediary must be assessed case by case, on the basis of functions. Terms of use, open-source code and a DAO structure are indications, but not decisive. If there remains an identifiable person or organisation that controls or actually provides the service, applicability must be examined separately. The DeFi label is not sufficient on its own.

In practice, this means that whether a specific protocol falls within scope is a case-by-case question that cannot be answered here. The general consequence is solid. Where there is no authorised provider, there is no supervisor to direct a complaint to and no rules on segregating client funds. The European rulebook is also due for revision; authorities in France are calling for providers to be liable for losses incurred via DeFi access points. Nothing has been decided.

Custody: after an exchange incident, what counts is who holds the keys

The practical lesson of the night has little to do with HYPE and a lot to do with where a holding sits. Funds on an exchange are convenient and immediately tradable, but depend on that company's operations. A holding in a wallet whose keys you hold yourself is independent of any exchange's operations, but requires you to store access securely, with no one to restore it if it is lost.

For the part of your holdings not needed for trading, self-custody is the obvious route. Which devices are suitable, and what matters when securing access, is covered in our hardware wallet comparison. The order is important: access is secured and checked before a larger amount moves onto the device.

What makes sense during a withdrawal pause

As long as withdrawals are halted, nothing can be done about the situation itself. Two things are still possible. First, check open leveraged positions for their collateral buffer, because a liquidation hits regardless of whether withdrawals are running. Second, keep an eye on the exchange's announcements and do not follow instructions from news items, chat groups or direct messages urging a quick transfer. Incidents like this are regularly accompanied by scam attempts posing as help.

Tax: spot and derivatives are treated differently in Germany

A 13 percent gain raises the question of tax, and the answer depends on how the gain arose. For crypto assets you hold directly and sell again, private disposal rules under Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act apply: after a holding period of more than one year the gain is tax-free; below that, it counts as taxable income, subject to an exemption limit on total private disposal gains in a year.

That does not apply to gains from derivatives. This income counts as capital income under Section 20 of the German Income Tax Act, is subject to the flat-rate withholding tax and has no holding period after which it becomes tax-free. The rules on offsetting losses from futures transactions have been changed several times in recent years. A position in perpetual futures is therefore something different for tax purposes from the same amount held directly, and the records for it must be complete. For the tax return, what counts is that trading data for both types is kept separately and in full. Assessing an individual case remains a job for a tax adviser.

Price levels: $78.74 on the downside, $90 on the upside

Two levels can be derived from the night's figures without turning them into a forecast. On the downside is the previous day's price of $78.74, from which the move started. If the price falls back there, the gain has been given back entirely, and leveraged long positions opened above it come under pressure.

On the upside, the $90 mark sits just above the current price of $89.42. That level was already in focus at the end of September, when HYPE reached its record high. For context on the chart and ongoing developments, we maintain a dedicated page on HYPE's price performance.

What links both levels is that their significance depends on the trigger. If Binance resumes withdrawals, the reason trading moved to the perpetuals exchange on this scale disappears. If the pause lasts longer, so does the inflow.

HYPE at $89: the inflow depends on Binance returning to normal

The rise is backed by the numbers, and its cause lies visibly outside the token. The move is therefore sustainable for as long as its trigger persists. Three steps follow from this:

1. Sort your holdings by type of custody. Check which part of your holdings sits at an exchange and which in your own wallet. Spreading funds across several venues means you depend on none of them alone; which providers are available on a regulated basis in Germany is shown in our crypto exchange comparison.
2. Weigh leveraged positions against funding costs. At around 180 percent a year, holding a long position on HYPE costs about half a percent a day. Calculate these costs over your planned holding period before you open or extend a position; the terms of each platform are listed in the perp DEX comparison.
3. Keep separate records for tax. Keep spot trades and derivatives trades apart from the outset, because different rules apply to them. Suitable tools are listed in our overview of crypto tax tools.

What remains open is the size of the outflow at Binance and when withdrawals will resume. Both will determine HYPE's direction more than any level on the chart.

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

Hedera is a public network for digital assets that does not chain its transactions together in blocks but orders them with a method called hashgraph. HBAR is the associated cryptocurrency: every transfer, every token and every message on the network is paid for in HBAR, and HBAR holders can use it to back a consensus node. Hedera is governed by a council of large companies that sets the rules and the fees. That design is precisely what sets Hedera apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, where no one fills such a council.

The price stood at around $0.073 on October 29, roughly €0.065. That gives HBAR a market capitalisation of just over $3.2 billion and ranks it 33rd among the largest cryptocurrencies. Over the previous month the price lost almost 30 percent, and over the year just over 64 percent. The all-time high of $0.569 dates from September 2021, five years ago. This article explains what lies behind the network and gives no price targets.

Hedera at a glance: a public network with hashgraph instead of blocks

A conventional blockchain collects transactions in a block, attaches that block to the previous one and repeats the process at fixed intervals. Hedera works differently. The network uses a directed acyclic graph, or DAG: a data structure in which each entry refers to several predecessors without forming a single chain. Any node can submit a transaction at any time, and the order is calculated afterwards from the mutual references.

The practical difference lies in finality. On Bitcoin, a payment is considered secure only after several block confirmations, because a block that has just been written could in theory still be displaced. On Hedera there are no competing blocks that could displace one another: once the order has been calculated, it stands. The network assigns a consensus timestamp in the process, a time for each entry confirmed jointly by all nodes.

Hedera describes itself as a public proof-of-stake network with hashgraph consensus. Proof of stake means that a node's weight in voting depends on the amount of HBAR staked to it, not on its computing power. There is therefore no energy consumption of the kind seen in bitcoin mining.

Gossip about gossip: how hashgraph consensus works without electing a leader

The method behind Hedera is called gossip about gossip. Each node tells randomly chosen other nodes what it has heard, and also tells them from whom it heard it. That second part is the core: because every message carries its own history of how it spread, after a short time every node knows not only all transactions but also the route by which each one reached it.

From this history, the order can be derived mathematically without the nodes having to vote with each other again. Hedera calls this virtual voting, because each node calculates on its own how the others would have voted. There is no leader proposing a block, and therefore no point at which a single operator could shift the order in its favour.

A transaction is considered final once nodes holding more than two thirds of all staked HBAR have processed it. This two-thirds threshold is the usual security limit for Byzantine fault tolerance, that is, the question of how many malicious or failed participants a network can withstand. The code for the method is now open source and is maintained as a vendor-neutral project under the name Hiero.

33 companies on the Governing Council: who decides on Hedera

Fees, software releases and the use of the HBAR reserve are decided not by holders at large but by the Hedera Governing Council. According to the council itself, it comprises 33 organisations from 13 industries. The timeline on the same page, however, lists some 40 names that have joined since 2019, and other sources give 34 or a cap of 39 seats. The range reflects the fact that members also leave; a membership count from any single report should therefore not be taken as permanent.

The names are the real point. The council includes Google, IBM, Boeing, FedEx, Dell Technologies, LG Electronics, Accenture, ServiceNow, Ubisoft, Japan's Nomura, Singapore's DBS Bank, the utility Électricité de France, Spain's Repsol, the law firms DLA Piper and Dentons, University College London, the London School of Economics and Deutsche Telekom. Under the council's rules, each member may serve at most two consecutive terms of three years each.

The council is at once Hedera's strongest selling point and its most frequent point of criticism. For a company that wants to put a supply chain or payment network on public infrastructure, a named, accountable group of operators is an advantage over an anonymous field of miners. For investors who see decentralisation as a value in itself, the same group is a concentration risk. How strongly the council moves the price became clear in September, when a listing linked to IBM lifted the price 27 percent within a day, and in October, when the composition of the council itself became the story.

Three of the 25 consensus nodes are in Germany

Who runs the network can be looked up publicly on Hedera, and the list is shorter than many expect. The mainnet runs on 25 consensus nodes. Operators are mostly council members, and the locations are spread around the world: Singapore, Iowa, Tokyo, Helsinki, Kuwait City, São Paulo and others.

For German readers, the location detail is more interesting than the total. Three of these 25 nodes are in Germany: one in Berlin, operated by Deutsche Telekom, one in Frankfurt under Tata Communications and one in Falkenstein in the Vogtland region, operated by the London School of Economics. More than one in ten of the network's consensus nodes is therefore on German soil, and the German telecoms group is not merely a council member but also an operator.

Together, all nodes carry around 10.3 billion HBAR in staked balances. With 44.3 billion HBAR in circulation, that is just under 23 percent. Deutsche Telekom's Berlin node, with 45 million HBAR of its own stake, sits at the upper limit of what individual operators deposit there.

HBAR has a fixed maximum supply of 50 billion units

The maximum supply of HBAR is fixed at 50 billion units, all of which were created at launch. Around 44.3 billion are in circulation; the rest sits in the network's reserve and is released by council decision. No new HBAR is created: there is no mining and no ongoing inflation, but there is dilution as long as the reserve is being drawn down.

This point is often overlooked. Bitcoin's supply is also capped, but new units enter circulation predictably over decades. On Hedera, a body decides when and how much leaves the reserve for the market. Anyone assessing the price should therefore look not only at circulating supply but also at the decisions on the reserve.

Fees fixed in dollars: $0.0001 for a transfer

Fees are Hedera's technical selling point: set in dollars and settled in HBAR at the prevailing price. According to the network's fee schedule, a simple HBAR transfer costs $0.0001, transferring a token created on Hedera costs $0.001, and submitting a message to the Consensus Service costs $0.0008.

Fixing prices in dollars rather than in HBAR has a consequence that matters for companies and cuts both ways for holders: a developer knows what a million transactions will cost, regardless of where the price stands. If the price falls, the same transaction requires more HBAR, and demand for HBAR from usage rises in purely arithmetic terms. If the price rises, it falls.

The price for Consensus Service messages was not always this high. It was originally $0.0001 and was raised eightfold, which the council justified with the long-term sustainability of the network. The network's fee page lists the higher figure, while elsewhere its own documentation still gives $0.0001 per message. If you are working with the numbers, use the schedule rather than the overview page, and allow for the fact that all fees are subject to change.

Token Service and Consensus Service: what companies use the network for

Hedera offers its functions as built-in services, not just as code that someone has to write themselves. Three of them matter in practice.

The Hedera Token Service creates and manages tokens, both fungible ones such as a euro stablecoin and non-fungible ones such as a collectible. The rules, such as who may freeze or mint more, are built into the service and do not have to be programmed. The Hedera Consensus Service provides an ordered, tamper-proof log: whoever submits a message receives a shared timestamp on it. This is used for audit trails, for example to record when a batch left a warehouse. The network cites more than 10,000 operations per second for this service. On top of that come smart contracts, self-executing agreements written in Ethereum's Solidity language that can access the other two services through system contracts.

This design explains why the council includes logistics groups, network operators and law firms rather than trading platforms. Hedera sells less a currency than a ledger that several companies can rely on without handing the database to any one of them.

HBAR staking has no lock-up period, so balances stay liquid at all times

In staking, a holder assigns their balance to a consensus node and thereby increases its weight in consensus. The difference from many other networks lies in flexibility: according to the network's documentation, there is no lock-up period, and staked balances remain available at all times. The coins never leave the holder's control; they are merely assigned.

The council sets the reward rate and changes it on mainnet, so there is no fixed rate. Rewards are not paid continuously but on certain events, for example when the holder switches node or changes the staked amount. Unclaimed rewards remain available for up to 365 days. If you are considering staking, it makes sense to compare the terms with those of other networks before choosing a route.

For tax purposes, staking in Germany is no side issue. Rewards count as other income at the moment they are received and are taxed at the personal rate if, together with other income of this kind, they reach €256 a year. That is a different calculation from the later sale of the coins.

How investors in Germany can get HBAR

Three routes lead to an HBAR holding, and they differ markedly in cost, custody and tax.

The first route is buying directly on a trading platform with a euro pair. Which platforms list HBAR against the euro and what an order costs there is set out in our guide to buying HBAR from October 29; the difference between providers there ran into double-digit HBAR amounts per €100 invested. Since 2025, another important criterion is whether the provider is authorised under the European MiCA regulation, the EU's single rulebook for crypto-assets.

The second route is an exchange-traded product. For HBAR there are certificates from European issuers that can be held in a securities account like any other security. Management fees on these products are well above zero and eat into returns; in exchange, you do not need to handle custody yourself. How these products differ from a direct purchase in tax and costs is a separate question, which we cover in our piece on exchange-traded crypto products for German securities accounts.

The third route is self-custody. HBAR can be held in a wallet to which only the owner has the key, and common hardware devices support the network. What the devices cost and how they differ is covered in our hardware wallet comparison. This route is no obstacle to staking, because the balance stays in your own account when assigned to a node.

Tax in Germany: the one-year rule under Section 23 EStG also applies to HBAR

For tax purposes, HBAR is an "other asset" within the meaning of Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act (EStG), just like bitcoin. This gives rise to the rule that moves the most money for German investors: if you hold HBAR for more than a year and then sell, you pay no tax on the gain. If you sell within the year, the gain is taxed at your personal income tax rate, provided all private capital gains for the year together reach €1,000. This exemption limit has applied since 2024 and is not an allowance: if it is exceeded, the entire gain is taxable.

A disposal includes not only a sale for euros but also an exchange into another cryptocurrency or a stablecoin. The one-year period runs separately for each purchase, and the order matters when matching purchases and sales. If you buy and sell in several places, you therefore need a clean record; which tools can provide it is covered in our comparison of tax and portfolio tools.

Whether the one-year rule stays as it is remains open: a reform has been under negotiation in Berlin for months without any law being passed. For the current year, the period applies unchanged. In case of doubt about a specific case, the tax office decides, not a guide.

The case against Hedera: down 64 percent in a year and a council in which holders have no say

A profile that lists only strengths helps no one. Three objections to Hedera can be backed up with facts.

First, the price performance. A loss of just over 64 percent in a year and an all-time high five years in the past are a finding, not a matter of interpretation. Proximity to large corporations has not so far translated into a sustained rise in the price, and the price moves after council news each lasted only days.

Second, governance. An HBAR holder has no voting rights. Fees, reserve and software releases are decided by the council, and anyone not sitting on it cannot push anything through on the network. For investors looking for exactly this independence from committees, Hedera is the wrong network.

Third, the dependence on demand from usage. Because fees are fixed in dollars, demand for HBAR from operations grows only if more operations actually take place. If corporate usage does not broaden, the technology alone will not carry the price. The network publishes reliable usage figures for individual services only in part, which makes assessment harder.

Hedera (HBAR): the council carries the network, not the price

Hedera is an infrastructure bet on enterprise applications, backed by a named group of operators and by fixed fees in dollars. If you find that convincing, proceed in three steps.

1. First, check which trading platform lists HBAR against the euro and whether it is authorised under MiCA. An assessment of providers is available in our crypto exchange comparison.
2. Then decide where the holding should sit. For amounts you plan to hold for longer, self-custody is the safer place; the devices for it are listed in the hardware wallet comparison.
3. Finally, set up your records before the first sale comes up. Purchase date, quantity and price later decide the one-year period; suitable tools are listed in the tax tool comparison.

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

Lighter, the trading platform behind the LIT token, plans to file two registrations with the US derivatives regulator CFTC before the end of November: one as a trading venue and one as a clearing house. No application has been submitted yet, and nothing has been approved. The news has nonetheless moved the price twice already, on October 21 and again at the weekend. On Monday morning, November 2, 2026, LIT costs $3.13 according to CoinGecko, equivalent to €2.79.

For investors in Germany, the application changes little day to day at first: with the US licence, Lighter is targeting institutional clients in the United States. It is still worth watching, because it shows where one of the largest decentralised exchanges for perpetual futures wants to go, and because a date eight weeks away matters more for the supply of LIT tokens than any licence.

CFTC filing in November: Lighter wants its trading venue and clearing registered

Founder and chief executive Vladimir Novakovski presented the plan on the third-quarter conference call on October 21, according to TokenPost. Lighter intends to apply for two registrations: as a Designated Contract Market, or DCM, for the trading venue itself, and as a Derivatives Clearing Organization, or DCO, for settling trades.

A Designated Contract Market is a marketplace for futures contracts approved in the United States by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, comparable to a regulated futures exchange. A Derivatives Clearing Organization stands between buyer and seller, manages collateral and steps in if one side defaults. With both, a firm may operate a derivatives trading venue in the US and clear the trades itself.

According to TokenPost, perpetual futures and options are to be offered. The report puts the review process at 180 days; if an application is incomplete, the clock can be stopped. For an application filed at the end of November, that period would run into late spring 2027. Whether the CFTC will approve it is open.

On November 1, data provider CoinGecko picked up the timetable again: LIT was up 6.3 percent because Lighter was preparing to apply for the CFTC licences this month. That is how CoinCentral quotes the post. With the turn of the month, the vague "in November" has become a window of a few weeks.

What is Lighter? The perp DEX behind the LIT token

Lighter is a decentralised exchange for perpetual futures, a perp DEX in industry shorthand. Perpetual futures are futures contracts with no expiry date: you use leverage to bet on rising or falling prices, and a periodic settlement payment, the funding rate, keeps the contract price close to the spot price. You trade with your own collateral from your wallet, without an account at an exchange.

The LIT token launched at the end of December 2025. Part of the supply went to early users via an airdrop at the time. According to CoinCentral, around 250 million LIT are now in circulation, out of a maximum of 1 billion. On CoinGecko, LIT ranks 83rd among the largest cryptocurrencies with a market capitalisation of $784 million.

Lighter already has some experience with the US market. According to TokenPost, Robinhood Wallet offers Lighter's perpetual futures to eligible users in selected countries; US residents are excluded. For its own US offering, Robinhood chose Bitstamp rather than Lighter, CoinCentral reports. Novakovski said, according to TokenPost, that integration into Robinhood's US products depends on licensing and product. CFTC registration would be precisely that missing piece.

LIT price: from $3.88 on the day of the announcement to $3.13 today

On the day of the conference call, LIT jumped 21.3 percent to $3.88, according to TokenPost, with an intraday high of $3.97. The jump did not hold. In the days that followed, LIT gave back most of it; at the weekend, according to the CoinGecko post cited by CoinCentral, a 6.3 percent gain returned.

According to CoinGecko, LIT is 2.8 percent below the previous day on Monday morning and 0.7 percent above its level a week ago. Over 30 days it is down 10.5 percent. The September high was above $5, according to CoinCentral. Measured against that, the token has lost more than a third of its value, even though the news flow around the project has been rather positive.

CoinGecko puts trading volume over the past 24 hours at $84 million. That is respectable for a token of this size, but individual large orders can still move the price noticeably, especially on exchanges with a thin order book.

Buybacks from protocol revenue: $4.1 million in October

The strongest number for LIT comes from the business itself. Lighter uses part of its revenue to buy LIT back on the market. According to DefiLlama data, $4.11 million flowed to token holders in October, against $2.66 million in September. That is an increase of 55 percent. Since the start of the year, the total comes to $33.23 million. CoinCentral gives an almost identical figure of $4.03 million for the 30 days to October 31 and around $33.2 million for the year as a whole.

A large share of the October amount fell on two days. On October 28 and 29, as the Binance hack shook the market, a combined $1.40 million came in, roughly a third of the month. On November 1, it was only $48,600. Buybacks are therefore tied directly to trading activity: a lot of movement in the market brings a lot of fees, quiet days bring little.

Total fees in October were $6.22 million, according to DefiLlama. A buyback increases demand for the token without creating new tokens. It does not guarantee a rising price, however, as the decline since September shows.

cryptoticker.io compiled this analysis itself on November 2, 2026. It is based on the daily figures for Lighter published by DefiLlama: 305 daily values of revenue flowing to token holders from January 1 to November 1, 2026, plus fees, open interest and total value locked.

Open interest and TVL: how much capital sits on Lighter

Open interest measures the value of all open contracts, in other words how much money is currently betting on price moves. On Lighter, it stood at $718 million on November 2, according to DefiLlama. On October 27, before the Binance hack, it was $760 million. The drop of around 6 percent fits a market in which many traders closed positions after the shock, or had them closed.

Total value locked, or TVL, shows how much capital users have deposited on the platform as collateral. DefiLlama reports $795 million for November 2, after $828 million on October 27. Here too, some money has left, but most has stayed. For a platform without central custody, that is a sign that users trusted the system even in a turbulent week.

Taken together, the two figures give a mixed picture. The business is running, revenue rose in October, and the capital is largely still there. The token price has seen little of that benefit over the past 30 days.

Vesting from December 27: three quarters of LIT tokens are not yet in circulation

For LIT holders, another date matters more than the CFTC. According to CoinCentral, vesting for the team and investors begins on December 27. Vesting means that locked tokens are released gradually on a fixed schedule and may then be sold.

The order of magnitude follows from the figures above: of a maximum of 1 billion LIT, around 250 million are in circulation. Roughly 750 million tokens, three quarters of total supply, therefore still sit in reserves, incentive programmes or locked allocations. How much of that is released each month from December 27 depends on the release schedule, which you should look up with the project itself before making a decision.

Unlocks do not automatically weigh on a price. Whether early investors sell depends on their entry price, the market environment and their own plans. The vesting start thus falls in the weeks after the planned CFTC filing.

LIT levels: support at $3, resistance at $3.50

The levels CoinCentral cites on the daily chart of November 2 can be organised as follows, as an observation:

• $3.00 to $3.10: the support LIT is trading on on Monday. If the price falls below it, the broader demand zone at $2.50 to $2.75 comes into view.
• $3.40 to $3.50: the broken trend line from October. Only above it would the weekend's recovery be more than a countermove.
• $3.97: the intraday high of October 21, according to TokenPost, the day of the CFTC announcement.
• $4.50 to $5.00: the zone below the September high, which CoinCentral classes as major resistance.

None of these levels is a price target. According to CoinCentral, analyst Altcoin Sherpa considers $3.75 to $4 achievable as long as bitcoin remains stable, but expects pullbacks along the way. Set against that is the December vesting, which may bring additional supply. Both views have arguments behind them; the market will decide which prevails.

A perp DEX without MiCA authorisation: German users bear the leverage and liquidation risk

Anyone in Germany trading on Lighter does so outside European supervision. In the ESMA register listing crypto-asset service providers authorised under MiCA, there is no entry for Lighter among 392 entries (as of November 2, 2026). A US registration with the CFTC would not change that; it applies to the US market and US customers.

For you, this means no ombudsman, no deposit protection and no authority to turn to if the platform makes a mistake. At the same time, Lighter does not hold your money in the traditional sense; the collateral sits in a smart contract whose risk you share.

With perpetual futures, leverage weighs more heavily. A liquidation is the forced closure of a position when the posted collateral no longer covers the losses. At ten times leverage, a move of around 10 percent against you is enough to wipe out most of the collateral; fees and funding shorten the distance further. LIT has moved by more than 15 percent on individual days in recent weeks. How fees, leverage limits and custody differ between the major platforms is shown in our perp DEX comparison.

A small position, low leverage and a fixed stop are not caution for its own sake in such a market, but arithmetic: if you know the price at which your position will be liquidated, it will not take you by surprise.

Buying LIT in Germany: exchange, Bitwise ETP and holding period

There are two ways to get the token itself. The first is through a crypto exchange that lists LIT. Check beforehand whether the exchange has MiCA authorisation and whether it trades LIT against euros; an overview of regulated crypto exchanges with MiCA authorisation helps with the choice. If you then transfer LIT to your own wallet, you take on custody yourself.

The second route is through a securities account. Since September 23, 2026, the Bitwise Lighter Staking ETP has traded on Xetra under the ticker BLIT (ISIN DE000A4AV9T5), as cryptoticker.io reported at launch. The total expense ratio is 0.85 percent a year. You do not need a wallet for it.

For tax purposes, LIT held directly is currently subject to Germany's one-year holding period: if you sell at a profit within a year, the gain is taxable. It remains tax-free only if your total private capital gains for the year are below €1,000. After one year, the sale is tax-free. How the planned reform of the holding period will proceed is open; the cabinet has not yet taken a decision on it. Gains from perpetual futures follow different rules from selling the token itself, so it is worth consulting a tax adviser.

Lighter's application: the CFTC has 180 days to review it

The CFTC application is a signal of the project's direction, but not an event that will show up in the business over the coming weeks. Until then, what counts for LIT holders is the buybacks, the price around $3 and the start of vesting on December 27. Three steps help put this in context:

1. Choose your trading route: decide whether you want to hold LIT directly via an exchange or as an ETP in a securities account, and check providers in the comparison of crypto exchanges with MiCA authorisation.
2. Limit leverage: if you trade perpetual futures on Lighter or another platform, calculate the liquidation price before every order. Differences in fees and leverage are shown in the perp DEX comparison.
3. Document your purchases: record the purchase date and price of every LIT position so that you can prove the holding period cleanly. The crypto tax tools and portfolio trackers help with this.

(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.)

What is established: mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network has stood at 148.4 trillion since October 29, the highest on record. Over three adjustments since September 19 it has risen 11.8 percent, while bitcoin traded at $77,657 on Monday afternoon, 4.4 percent below its level on September 19. Our assessment follows further down: the miners' higher costs are no floor under the price, but they are a reason for continued selling pressure from this group.

Anyone looking at the chart today sees a quiet week: $77,511 as the daily low, $78,740 as the daily high, down 0.7 percent from Monday's close. Behind this calm sits a mechanism that rarely features in market commentary and that matters right now. Where the price could head over a horizon of months is covered in our bitcoin price prediction. This piece looks at the part the chart does not show: the miners' economics.

Bitcoin mining difficulty rises for the third time in a row

Every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, the Bitcoin network resets its difficulty. On October 16 it went up 5.92 percent, and on October 29 by a further 5.54 percent. Before that, on October 3, there was a flat adjustment of minus 0.03 percent. Taken together, the three steps add up to 11.8 percent, and the figure of 148.4 trillion is the highest the network has ever carried.

Difficulty is neither a fee nor a price that anyone sets. It determines how many hashing attempts are needed on average before a valid block is found. If it rises 5.5 percent, the same machine needs 5.5 percent more time, and therefore 5.5 percent more electricity, for the same share of the block reward.

What a mining difficulty adjustment sets in motion

The mechanism behind it is a feedback loop, and it explains why the number is rising now of all times. The network targets one block every ten minutes. When operators add hashing power, blocks arrive faster, and the next adjustment pushes difficulty up until the ten-minute rhythm is restored. When they switch machines off, it falls.

That is exactly what has happened in recent weeks. The network's hashrate averaged 1,069 exahashes per second over the seven days to November 2, against 984 at the start of October. One exahash is a quintillion hashing attempts per second. The network has therefore gained 8.7 percent more capacity, even though the price fell over the same period. Data centres ordered months ago are coming online now, regardless of what the price is doing.

For investors, this means the miners' cost side responds to the price with a delay, not immediately. Quarters pass between the decision to build a facility and the day its machines start hashing.

Hashprice: $33,095 instead of $38,552 per exahash

To measure the gap between effort and return, we calculated the network's daily revenue per exahash of hashing power. The inputs are the block reward of 3.125 bitcoin, the 144 blocks produced on an average day, daily closing prices on the Kraken exchange and the network's seven-day average hashrate. cryptoticker.io compiled this analysis itself on November 2, 2026.

The result: in the week to November 2, one exahash of hashing power earned $33,095 in daily revenue. In the week to October 9 it was $38,552. That is a decline of 14.2 percent. It has two components pulling in the same direction: 8.7 percent more hashrate cuts the same cake into more slices, and a price 6.7 percent lower makes the cake smaller.

The block reward has been 3.125 bitcoin since the halving in April 2024. The next halving is not due until 2028. Until then, only the price or transaction fees can improve the miners' economics, and fees currently contribute only a small share.

Why miners sell in this situation

A miner has two kinds of cost. The machines are paid for before the first block is found; that is sunk capital. Electricity, by contrast, is incurred every day and has to be paid every month. If revenue per exahash falls while the power bill stays the same, there are exactly three options: sell their own bitcoin, take on debt or switch machines off.

All three show up in the market. Sales from this group hit an order book that is already thin. If you buy or sell yourself, pay attention to the fees and market depth of your exchange; our crypto exchange comparison shows where the spread between bid and ask stays narrow on larger orders.

The 200-day moving average at $73,161 as the lower level

On Sunday the futures curve was the focus here; today it is the levels on the chart. We calculated both lines that matter at present ourselves, from the daily closing prices of the past 200 trading days.

On the downside, the 200-day average sits at $73,161. The price is 6.2 percent above it. This line has held as a support zone several times this year, and it is still rising, if slowly. Closer to hand is the 30-day low of $77,204 from October 31, only 0.6 percent below the current price. If that level gives way, the chart shows no fresh price history between it and the 200-day line.

The 50-day moving average at $81,932 caps the upside

On the upside, the 50-day average stands at $81,932, 5.2 percent above the price. As long as bitcoin stays below it, the medium-term trend points down. The 30-day high was $86,510 on October 3; the price is now 10.2 percent away from it.

Between $73,161 and $81,932 lies the corridor in which the coming weeks will probably be decided. It is just under twelve percent wide, and the price currently sits in its lower third.

The next difficulty adjustment on November 13 points lower

The current difficulty period is a little more than a quarter complete, with 1,487 blocks still to go. Extrapolated from the pace so far, the next adjustment on November 13 would be 1.45 percent lower. That would be the first meaningful cut since August 23, when difficulty eased 1.31 percent; the flat adjustment of minus 0.03 percent on October 3 was noise.

This estimate is no promise, however. The projection rests on the pace of the first 500 or so blocks and could reverse before the adjustment date, particularly as hashrate has picked up again over the past three days. A cut would nonetheless be a signal: it would mean operators are actually taking machines off the network because running them no longer pays at these prices.

What has changed since Sunday's futures market analysis

On November 1 we described the missing premium in the futures market here; the price stood at $77,370 at the time. Little has changed in the picture since then: at $77,657 the price is 0.4 percent higher, the $77,204 level has held again, and the daily high of $78,740 did not get past the weekend's zone.

What is new is the cost side. The futures curve says something about traders' expectations; revenue per exahash says something about the constraints on a group that receives 450 new bitcoin every day and has to sell part of them. Taken together, the two give a fuller picture than either metric on its own.

Our view: mining costs are no price floor

In the newsroom's view, the miners' economics are regularly misread. The idea that the price cannot fall below production costs sounds plausible and has not held historically: in the 2022 downturn, bitcoin traded for months below the electricity costs then estimated for many operators, and the network kept running. The mechanism itself explains why. When the price falls, the most expensive operators switch off, difficulty drops, and the remaining operators produce more cheaply. The system finds a new equilibrium; it does not support any particular price.

What the figures do offer, in our view, is something else: an indication of the supply side over the coming weeks. 14.2 percent less revenue per exahash with an unchanged power bill raises the pressure to sell ongoing production. Against that, many listed operators have hedged their electricity costs over the long term and have credit lines available. The pressure can therefore be shown as a tendency, not as a number.

Holding period and tax: what a sale costs in Germany

For investors in Germany, this situation comes with a concrete calculation that has nothing to do with the chart. Under current law, anyone who holds bitcoin for more than a year sells the gain tax-free; within the year, your personal income tax rate applies once total gains from private sales exceed €1,000 in the calendar year. So if you are thinking about selling today, check the purchase date first, not the price.

What happens to the holding period is politically open; we track the latest state of play on our page on the crypto holding period. If you bought at several different times, you also need a clean allocation using the first in, first out method. Which tools do this automatically and produce the annual summary for the tax office is covered in our crypto tax software comparison.

How to calculate revenue per exahash yourself

The calculation takes three numbers and a minute. Current hashrate and difficulty are publicly available on the mempool.space mining dashboard, and any exchange will give you the price. Multiply 450 bitcoin by the price in dollars, divide the result by the hashrate in exahashes per second, and you have the daily revenue per exahash.

If you want the trend rather than the daily figure, mempool.space shows difficulty and hashrate in a combined chart. Because daily hashrate readings fluctuate widely, between 867 and 1,228 exahashes in October alone, it makes sense to work with a seven-day average rather than a single day.

Mining costs and the bitcoin price: below $77,204 it gets serious

Three points from this piece to work with:

1. Note the levels. $77,204 as the 30-day low, $73,161 as the 200-day line below it, $81,932 as the 50-day line above. If you want to buy, place your order at one of these levels rather than somewhere in between; our exchange comparison shows which platform charges the lowest fees for it.
2. Mark November 13 in your calendar. If difficulty does fall then, part of the hashing power has given up. Historically, that tends to be a late signal rather than an early one.
3. Check the purchase date before the price. In Germany, a sale before the one-year period ends costs income tax; a sale after it does not. The tools in our tax tool comparison handle the allocation.

(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. Trading crypto assets carries the risk of total loss.)

Ten months of institutional buying, undone in a single Friday. US spot $Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of 643.3 million dollars on 30 October, the largest single-day exit since 25 June and the twelfth largest since the funds launched in January 2024, according to SoSoValue data.

Our tally last week showed the ETFs closing October still in positive territory for the year. That is barely true anymore. Here is what happened and what it tells us about the next move in Bitcoin.

How much of the 2026 Bitcoin ETF inflows is left?

Not much. Before Friday, the US spot Bitcoin ETFs sat on a year-to-date net inflow of just over 1 billion dollars. Friday’s exit removed roughly 64 percent of that in one session. The funds are still green for 2026, but only just.

Total assets under management slipped below the symbolic 100 billion dollar mark to around 98 billion. Spot Ethereum ETFs did not escape either: roughly 156 million dollars left on the same day, extending a run of weekly outflows.

Which Bitcoin ETFs saw the biggest outflows?

The two giants led the way. BlackRock’s IBIT lost 233.7 million dollars and Fidelity’s FBTC lost 201.4 million. Between them that is two thirds of the day’s total. Friday’s figure also narrowly beat the 635.5 million dollar outflow of 22 October, which means the two worst ETF days of the autumn happened eight days apart. The last time outflows were larger was 25 June, when 696.3 million dollars left the funds.

Why did investors pull money from Bitcoin ETFs?

Timing is the obvious answer. Friday was the first US trading session after the 6.3 billion dollar Binance hack late on Thursday. Analysts at options exchange Derive linked the outflow directly to traders protecting themselves against further losses while the exchange halted withdrawals.

But the hack landed on a market that was already soft. The Coinbase premium, which measures whether US investors are paying more than the global market for Bitcoin, has been negative for days, sitting between minus 0.18 and minus 0.27 percent. The Fear and Greed Index has drifted into the low 30s. The Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75 to 4.00 percent last week with two officials arguing for a hike. ETF holders were looking for a reason to step back, and Binance handed them one.

What does the ETF outflow mean for the Bitcoin price?

Less than the headline suggests, at least so far. Bitcoin briefly dipped toward 76,300 dollars after the hack, traded between 77,000 and 78,000 over the weekend without panic selling, and was retesting 78,000 on Monday morning. The market absorbed the biggest ETF exit in four months with a drop of about 2 percent.

The levels that matter are 76,000 as support and 80,000 as resistance. A clean break above 80,000 with ETF flows turning positive again would confirm that Friday was a one-off. A break below 76,000 with continued outflows would say otherwise.

What could move Bitcoin ETF flows this week?

Three dates. Tuesday 3 November brings the US midterm elections, which decide who writes crypto legislation for the next two years. Friday 6 November brings the nonfarm payrolls report, the first look at the US labor market since the Fed’s split decision. And on 11 November, MSCI publishes its final list of companies affected by its new rules on non-operating holding companies, with Bitcoin treasury firms Strategy and Metaplanet flagged as possible exclusions. Passive selling of their shares would not hit Bitcoin directly, but it would weaken the largest corporate buyers in the market.

$2.85 billion of the $6.43 billion stolen from Binance has been frozen or seized, compared with about 3% in the Bybit hack, as North Korea’s automated laundering spans 12,000 wallets.

Proton customers say they are canceling subscriptions after reports of pressure to adopt AI coding, as the privacy company scraps employee re-interviews but defends its broader shift toward automated development.

Nvidia, Costco, Nike and nine other companies objected to trading of their shares on the planned OKX-ICE tokenized stock venue, bringing the total to 50.

The OpenAI CEO said it's "quite terrible" for DRAM to sit largely idle in personal computers while AI data centers face a supply crunch.

Brazil's largest crypto exchange paused deposits and withdrawals after a security incident. Tether froze more than 4.5 million USDT tied to the attack.

Following the $6.3 billion Binance hack, NEAR Intents' Alex Shevchenko names 3 critical rules to stop wallets from laundering stolen funds.

Ripple partner Mercado Bitcoin has temporarily suspended cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals after confirming a security breach, with blockchain investigators reporting more than $40 million in suspicious transactions.

Brazil's biggest crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin discloses the specific on-chain address holding 6.7 million stolen Stellar (XLM) after a $40 million hack.

Solana has officially reached 1,000 days without a network-wide outage, marking a major turnaround for a blockchain once notorious for frequent disruptions and highlighting significant improvements in network reliability.

Hyperliquid bulls are getting flushed out of its derivatives market as long positions wiped out over the last 24 hours are over 700% bigger than liquidated short positions during the same period.

TLDR

• QURE stock falls 2.98% to $24.09 despite FDA Priority Review for AMT-130.
• FDA sets May 1, 2027, as the target decision date for uniQure’s gene therapy.
• uniQure plans to begin screening 200 patients for its confirmatory trial by year-end.
• AMT-130 targets Huntington’s disease through uniQure’s proprietary gene-silencing platform.
• QURE shares break below $24.83 support despite a major regulatory milestone.

uniQure (QURE) shares declined 2.98% to $24.09 on Monday, losing $0.74 during the trading session. The stock extended its recent losses despite a major regulatory milestone for its experimental Huntington’s disease treatment. The decline followed a break below the $24.83 support level, as the company advanced its gene therapy application through the FDA review process.

uniQure N.V., QURE

FDA Grants Priority Review to uniQure’s Huntington’s Disease Treatment

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted uniQure’s Biologics License Application (BLA) for ifezuntirgene inilparvovec. The investigational gene therapy targets Huntington’s disease, a progressive inherited disorder that affects movement, cognition, and behavior. The agency granted the application Priority Review under the Accelerated Approval pathway, setting May 1, 2027, as its target decision date.

The FDA indicated that it tentatively plans to discuss the application at an Advisory Committee meeting. However, the agency has not finalized the meeting date or schedule. The regulatory review marks an important step toward potential approval of the experimental treatment.

The application relies on 36-month results from uniQure’s Phase I/II clinical program. The company compared treated patients with a propensity score-matched external control from the Enroll-HD natural history database. uniQure previously announced the analysis on September 24, 2025, providing the clinical evidence supporting its submission.

AMT-130 Confirmatory Trial Targets 200 Huntington’s Disease Patients

uniQure has aligned with the FDA on key elements of its confirmatory clinical trial. The planned study will enroll approximately 200 patients and compare the gene therapy against standard care. Researchers will allocate participants in a 2:1 ratio between treatment and standard care.

The trial will use Total Functional Capacity (TFC) as its primary endpoint at 36 months. This measure evaluates patients’ ability to perform everyday activities and maintain functional independence. uniQure plans to begin patient screening in the United States before the end of 2026.

The confirmatory study remains an important part of the regulatory process. The company expects the trial to progress substantially by the time of potential approval. This approach will provide additional clinical evidence on the treatment’s effectiveness and safety.

uniQure Advances Gene Therapy Platform With Multiple FDA Designations

Ifezuntirgene inilparvovec, also known as AMT-130, uses uniQure’s proprietary miQURE gene-silencing platform. The treatment incorporates a microRNA designed to reduce huntingtin gene activity and the potentially toxic exon 1 protein fragment. It requires a single administration through MRI-guided neurosurgical delivery directly into the brain’s striatum.

Furthermore, AMT-130 holds Breakthrough Therapy and Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy designations from the FDA. The agency has also granted the treatment Fast Track status. These designations reflect the regulatory support surrounding its development for Huntington’s disease.

uniQure has administered AMT-130 to 51 patients across its Phase I/II clinical studies. The U.S. randomized study enrolled 26 patients, including 16 treatment recipients and 10 participants assigned to sham procedures. Four control participants later crossed over to treatment after approximately 12 months.

The European open-label study included another 13 patients across low-dose and high-dose groups. Additionally, 12 patients received both doses alongside immunosuppression in a separate cohort. A further six U.S. patients are evaluating high-dose treatment with lower striatal volumes.

Despite the FDA’s Priority Review decision, QURE shares remained under selling pressure during Monday’s session. The stock’s decline below $24.83 leaves that former support level as an important price reference. Meanwhile, the May 1, 2027, FDA deadline establishes the next major regulatory milestone for uniQure.

The post uniQure (QURE) Stock: Falls 3% Despite FDA Priority Review for Huntington’s Disease Gene Therapy appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Marvell stock falls 6.35% to $183.93 following its $115 billion Lumentum deal.
• Lumentum shareholders will receive 4.5 Marvell shares for each share they own.
• Marvell expects more than $1 billion in annual cost synergies after the deal.
• The acquisition expands Marvell’s AI connectivity market opportunity to $550 billion.
• Marvell expects the Lumentum acquisition to boost earnings in its first year

Marvell Technology (MRVL) shares dropped 6.35% to $183.93 after the company announced its $115 billion acquisition of Lumentum. The stock lost $12.47 during the session, extending its decline below the $196.40 level. Meanwhile, the all-stock agreement marks a major expansion of Marvell’s position in the artificial intelligence infrastructure market.

Marvell Technology, Inc., MRVL

Marvell Stock Falls After Announcing Lumentum Acquisition

Marvell announced a definitive agreement to acquire Lumentum through an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $115 billion. Under the agreement, Lumentum shareholders will receive 4.500 Marvell shares for each Lumentum share held. The transaction values each Lumentum share at approximately $1,132 and represents a 23.9% premium.

The premium reflects the companies’ unaffected closing share prices on October 28, 2026. This date preceded market speculation about a potential acquisition between the two semiconductor companies. Following completion, existing Marvell shareholders will own approximately 67% of the combined business.

Meanwhile, Lumentum shareholders will receive the remaining 33% ownership on a fully diluted basis. Marvell Chairman and CEO Matt Murphy will continue leading the combined company after completion. Additionally, three Lumentum directors, including CEO Michael Hurlston, will join Marvell’s seven-member board.

AI Infrastructure Expansion Drives Strategic Rationale

The acquisition targets growing demand for optical connectivity across artificial intelligence infrastructure. As AI systems expand, data centers require faster connections and greater bandwidth to support increasingly complex computing architectures. Consequently, the industry continues shifting from traditional copper connections toward advanced optical technologies.

Marvell brings expertise in electrical and optical interconnects, network switching, custom processors and advanced semiconductor technologies. Meanwhile, Lumentum contributes high-performance lasers, optical transceivers and optical circuit switching capabilities. Its specialized manufacturing operations also provide expertise in compound semiconductors, including indium phosphide.

Together, the companies intend to develop integrated connectivity solutions across the AI infrastructure supply chain. Their combined technologies will cover connections between distributed data centers and advanced semiconductor packages. Furthermore, the integration aims to improve bandwidth, processing performance and energy efficiency.

$550 Billion Market Opportunity and Transaction Timeline

The combined company expects to address a total market opportunity valued at approximately $550 billion. The transaction provides more than $1 billion in projected annual cost synergies. Marvell also expects the acquisition to improve long-term revenue growth and operating margins.

The agreement anticipates earnings accretion to Marvell’s non-GAAP earnings per share during the first year after closing. However, shareholders from both companies must approve the transaction before completion. Regulatory clearances and other customary closing conditions also remain necessary.

The companies expect to complete the acquisition during the first half of calendar year 2028. Separately, Marvell reported preliminary fiscal third-quarter 2027 revenue within its previously issued guidance. The company maintained its revenue guidance midpoint while narrowing the expected range to plus or minus 2%, from the original 5% range.

The post Marvell Technology (MRVL) Stock: Slides 6.35% After $115B Lumentum Acquisition Deal appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Michael Saylor posted his orange Bitcoin chart on Sunday, hinting at another Strategy purchase.
• Strategy held 848,517 Bitcoin as of October 25, according to its latest results.
• Bitcoin traded near $77,804 on Sunday, about 3.1% above Strategy’s September 30 average cost of $75,437.
• U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $643.2 million on October 30 and ended October with about $516 million in net outflows.
• Strategy’s variable-rate preferred stock closed Friday at $99.13, down 0.83%.

Michael Saylor has hinted that Strategy may have bought more Bitcoin. On Sunday, the executive chairman posted his familiar orange-themed chart on X.

“We found room for even more orange,” Saylor wrote alongside the chart. He often shares this image before the company announces new Bitcoin purchases.

The post did not say how many coins Strategy may have bought. It also did not confirm whether any deal had been completed.

Strategy usually teases purchases on Sundays and releases details on Mondays. Bitcoin was trading near $78,000 at the time, following the $6.3 billion Binance hack.

Strategy’s Recent Bitcoin Purchases

The company’s buying has been slow in recent weeks. On October 19, Strategy bought 267 Bitcoin, lifting its holdings to 848,517 coins.

That purchase came with $193 million in buybacks of its variable-rate preferred stock. The company also raised its buyback limit for these securities from $2 billion to $3 billion.

Strategy released its latest financial results on October 29. They showed its Bitcoin holdings have grown 26% since the start of 2026.

In the third quarter, the company bought 7,218 Bitcoin for $588.1 million. It also sold 5,552 coins, leaving a net gain of 1,666 Bitcoin.

Strategy raised about $21.23 billion in the first ten months of the year. That money went to several company activities, not only Bitcoin purchases.

The company reported record third-quarter operating income of $20.91 billion. Most of this came from an accounting gain on its Bitcoin holdings. Net income reached $19.53 billion, up from $2.79 billion a year earlier.

“We’re at the beginning of the next bitcoin bull market,” Saylor said during the earnings announcement. He pointed to institutional interest and Bitcoin’s position above its 200-week moving average.

Bitcoin Price and ETF Outflows

Bitcoin traded at about $77,804 on Sunday, up 0.45% over 24 hours. It had dropped to around $76,100 after the October 29 Binance hack.

Strategy’s September 30 statement listed 847,666 Bitcoin at a total cost of $63.95 billion. That works out to $75,437 per coin, about 3.1% below Sunday’s price. This figure does not include October purchases.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs lost $643.2 million on October 30, according to Bitfinex. The month ended with about $516 million in net outflows.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust saw $233.7 million in withdrawals that day, according to Farside Investors. Fidelity’s Bitcoin fund lost $201 million, and the ARK 21Shares fund lost $129.5 million.

Grayscale’s Bitcoin fund saw $53.3 million in outflows, and Bitwise’s fund lost $25.7 million. The selling erased $440.8 million in inflows from the previous four trading days.

BlackRock’s fund still ended October with about $932 million in net inflows. Bitfinex estimated Bitcoin was trading 7.5% below the average ETF investor’s cost.

Strategy’s variable-rate preferred stock closed Friday at $99.13, down 0.83%. The company holds $5.07 billion in dollar assets, which it says cover 3.4 years of dividend and interest payments.

If Strategy confirms a new purchase, the filing would show how many coins it bought, the price paid and how the deal was funded.

The post Michael Saylor Hints at New Strategy Bitcoin Purchase as ETFs Lose $643 Million appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• OneKey founder Yishi Wang warned that BlackRock’s $62 billion Bitcoin ETF could be targeted by North Korean hackers.
• The warning followed the $6 billion Binance hack, which US authorities linked to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.
• Coinbase, the fund’s main custodian, said it adjusted its cold storage systems as a precaution.
• The fund held about 815,000 BTC as of Oct. 29, roughly 3.9% of Bitcoin’s maximum supply.
• There is no evidence that the fund or Coinbase’s custody systems have been compromised.

North Korean hackers could target BlackRock’s $62 billion Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, according to Yishi Wang, founder of crypto wallet maker OneKey.

“I suspect [the fund] is already on North Korea’s shortlist,” Wang said. His warning followed the $6 billion Binance hack, which US authorities linked to North Korea’s TraderTraitor operation.

The comments put attention on Coinbase. The exchange is the main Bitcoin custodian for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, the world’s largest spot Bitcoin ETF.

A CryptoSlate snapshot from April 8 found that funds naming Coinbase in a custody role held more than 80% of US Bitcoin ETF assets.

Coinbase Adjusts Cold Storage After Binance Breach

In an Oct. 29 statement, Coinbase Chief Security Officer Jeff Lunglhofer said the exchange was blocking transfers to compromised Binance wallets. He added that Coinbase had adjusted its cold storage systems out of an abundance of caution.

The company said its infrastructure remained secure.

Wang’s concern is based on methods North Korean hackers have used before. In February 2025, attackers stole about $1.5 billion from the exchange Bybit.

In that attack, hackers broke into a Safe{Wallet} developer’s computer using malicious software disguised as normal development tools. A forensic investigation by Sygnia found they changed the screen Bybit’s signers used to approve transactions.

The signers were tricked into approving a transfer from a cold wallet. The attackers did not need to steal private keys because they controlled the approval process.

Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs found that the Binance attackers made coordinated transfers across 10 blockchains. Some transactions used pre-signed authorizations on Ethereum.

TRM said the attack likely involved compromised hot-wallet signing systems. Binance first pointed to a compromised employee laptop, then disclosed more breach points. The exchange said investigators found no evidence of leaked private keys.

How Much Bitcoin the Fund Holds

BlackRock’s data shows the fund held about $62 billion in net assets as of Oct. 30. Its Oct. 29 holdings file listed roughly 815,000 BTC, or about 3.9% of Bitcoin’s maximum supply.

BlackRock has added Anchorage Digital as another custodian. However, its June 30 quarterly filing said the fund has no current plans to move Bitcoin away from Coinbase.

There is no evidence that the fund or Coinbase’s custody systems have been compromised. Wang’s warning also does not show that North Korean hackers are actively targeting the fund.

BlackRock’s annual filing shows that Coinbase holds commercial crime insurance shared among all its customers. The coverage is not reserved only for the fund.

The custody agreement generally limits Coinbase’s liability to $100 million per cold storage address, with some contractual exceptions.

Unlike stablecoins, which issuers can freeze, Bitcoin has no central way to block stolen coins. That means shareholders could face losses that tracing, insurance or custodian payments may not fully cover.

Bitcoin traded at about $77,874 at the time of the report, down 0.22% over 24 hours and 7.92% over 30 days.

The post Coinbase Adjusts Cold Storage After $6 Billion Binance Hack appeared first on Blockonomi.

TLDR

• Threshold Network paused tBTC minting and bitcoin redemptions on Oct. 31 for undisclosed security maintenance.
• Threshold says about 4,320 bitcoin back the 4,185 tBTC in circulation and no funds were lost.
• Aave froze new tBTC deposits and borrowing on its Ethereum Core market, where about $136.6 million in tBTC is supplied.
• Gauntlet withdrew about 65,000 USDC from a Morpho lending market backed by tBTC collateral.
• Threshold has not named the security issue or given a date for redemptions to restart.

Aave has restricted new deposits and borrowing against about $136 million in tokenized bitcoin. The move came after Threshold Network suspended minting and redemptions for its tBTC token.

Threshold paused its bitcoin bridge on Oct. 31 to carry out security maintenance. The project has not said what the security issue is.

tBTC lets bitcoin holders use their coins on Ethereum and other networks. It is often used as collateral for loans in decentralized finance.

Threshold Says tBTC Remains Fully Backed

In an Oct. 31 security update, Threshold said about 4,320 bitcoin sit in its bridge wallets. That compares with 4,185 tBTC in circulation, leaving reserves about 135 bitcoin above supply.

“tBTC remains fully backed, and no funds have been lost,” the project said. It added that investigators found no unauthorized minting of new tokens.

Existing tBTC can still be moved across Ethereum and layer-2 networks. New bitcoin deposits, minting and redemption requests are on hold, and pending transactions will be completed once operations resume.

Threshold has not given a date for the bridge to reopen. It said the situation is contained and that full service will return after the fix.

Aave and Gauntlet Limit Exposure

Aave risk provider LlamaRisk recommended an immediate freeze of tBTC on Aave’s Ethereum V3 Core market. Aave’s guardian multisig carried out the change at 10:01 UTC on Oct. 31.

At the time, about 1,760 tBTC worth $136.6 million was supplied to the market. That is roughly 42% of all tBTC in circulation.

Users can no longer deposit more tBTC or use it to increase borrowing power. They can still repay loans and withdraw eligible collateral, and liquidations continue under the same rules.

The freeze only affects Aave’s Ethereum Core market. tBTC markets on Base and Arbitrum were already frozen during earlier rounds of asset removals.

LlamaRisk said it will keep watching collateral positions and trading liquidity. It will recommend restoring normal operations once conditions allow.

Risk manager Gauntlet also acted on Oct. 31. Its Ethereum Morpho USDC Core vault had about 704,000 USDC supplied to a lending market backed by tBTC.

Gauntlet placed that market on its emergency exclusion list. It withdrew about 65,000 USDC, leaving around 640,000 USDC supplied.

The firm warned that the pause could hurt tBTC trading liquidity. With redemptions closed, holders who want native bitcoin must find buyers on secondary markets.

If tBTC trades at a discount to bitcoin, collateral liquidations could become harder for lenders. This risk is higher for markets holding large amounts of the token.

Threshold has told users not to send bitcoin to old deposit addresses or repeat pending transactions. The project promised another security update within 24 hours of its Oct. 31 notice, or sooner if things change.

The post Aave Freezes $136 Million tBTC Market After Threshold Halts Bitcoin Redemptions appeared first on Blockonomi.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange suffered a major shock last week when hackers drained over $6.3 billion. However, that’s not all the bad news surrounding Binance lately.

Yi He, the company’s co-founder and chief customer service officer, encouraged users not to let their guard down, as bad actors could exploit the situation to target victims. Here are the exact threats.

Fake Campaigns and More

Over the past few days, certain X users claimed that Binance has introduced a cash voucher campaign. Yi He emphasized that the initiative has not yet gone live and must first secure regulatory approval before being rolled out to the community. She urged users not to fall for the claims, calling the development an attempt to deceive users.

“There is currently no cash voucher campaign, so please be vigilant against all types of phishing and scam links. Safety first,” she said.

Phishing attacks involve fake links, websites, or messages that impersonate trusted companies to trick users into revealing sensitive information or connecting their wallets. Once scammers access that data, they can drain victims’ accounts and transfer funds. This is why investors are advised to verify the authenticity of links and announcements before interacting with them.

This Binance exec flagged another potential fraud as well. She reposted a tweet warning that scammers on Telegram had been exploiting GRAM transfers by embedding fake “Binance Official Announcements” in transaction details.

“Please be aware of new scam patterns emerging amid the chaos,” she stressed.

Latest Updates on the Drama

Binance suffered a devastating cyberattack on October 30, with the North Korean hacking collective TraderTraitor supposedly draining more than $6.3 billion. The incident became the largest hack in cryptocurrency history and sent shockwaves through the sector.

The news triggered initial panic, sending Bitcoin and most altcoins lower. However, the incident did not trigger broader contagion, which may explain why the sell-off remained relatively modest.

In fact, Binance reacted swiftly to the hack and started fixing the issue. At first, it halted withdrawals and deposits while the team ran necessary security checks and worked with law enforcement. It also promised to reimburse users via its SAFU fund and own reserves.

On November 1, the company started preparing for the first phase of withdrawal recovery, featuring networks like Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, XRP, and more. Shortly after, the company resumed these services, and 95% of the affected amount has been replenished.

As CryptoPotato reported, users withdrew almost $4.65 billion in less than 10 hours. Deposits reached roughly $1.01 billion during the same period, resulting in net outflows of approximately $3.64 billion.

Later, Binance announced that fiat withdrawals became available for the following currencies: USD, AED, VND, PJP, and IDR. In one of her latest tweets, Yi He said the company’s top priority is to ensure the environment is secure so users can withdraw their funds and the exchange can resume normal operations.

Her comment follows a post by X user Selena, who recently drew a parallel between the Binance hack and the FTX collapse in 2022. She noted that the leading crypto exchange has already covered 95% of the stolen $6.3 billion, demonstrating its ability to absorb losses.

The post Crucial Binance Warning Concerning All Users: Details Inside appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Mercado Bitcoin (MB) suspended deposits and withdrawals on Monday after more than $40 million left wallets tied to the Brazilian exchange overnight, according to security firm Hypernative.

The exchange confirmed the incident in a statement on X, saying it had identified and quickly contained a security incident in one of its systems early that morning. MB said customers suffered no losses and no customer data leaked.

“Our teams are mobilized investigating the case, tracking the assets and coordinating measures with the competent authorities,” the company said.

Flows Across 10 Chains

Hypernative said the transfers ran across at least 10 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron. The first suspicious transfer came at 2:15 UTC. The largest transfers came between 6:19 and 6:53 UTC, when wallets tied to MB sent most of the funds to newly created addresses.

Those transfers were ordinary signed transactions, sent as if the source wallets had authorized them. Hypernative said it is not yet clear how the attacker got the power to sign those transactions. The firm called its estimate preliminary, since it still has to confirm that every source address belongs to MB.

MB later published five destination addresses linked to the incident, on EVM networks, Bitcoin, Solana, Stellar and Tron. The Bitcoin address took in about 106 BTC early on Monday, data from blockchain explorer mempool.space shows. Most of that Bitcoin arrived in one transfer of 104.4 BTC at 6:41 UTC. None of that Bitcoin had moved by 14:50 UTC.

Tether has frozen the USDT sent to two of those addresses. Its USDT contracts on Ethereum and Tron are both listed as blacklisted, according to on-chain data. The Tron address holds 708,243 USDT, and the Ethereum address holds more than 3 million.

Breach Follows Binance’s $6.3B Loss

The MB breach came four days after Binance lost $6.3 billion from its hot wallets on October 29. Hypernative called the Binance loss the largest crypto theft on record. Binance traced the theft to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which let an attacker submit unauthorized withdrawals.

Binance also halted withdrawals while it overhauled the security of its withdrawal service. About $3 billion of the stolen Binance funds was frozen on-chain with help from blockchain partners.

The post Mercado Bitcoin Halts Withdrawals After Security Incident as Hypernative Flags $40M Outflows appeared first on CryptoPotato.

With Bitcoin trading at around $78,000 after last week’s $6.3 billion Binance hack, the market is facing new questions about how institutional demand, exchange liquidity, and the movement of stolen funds could affect it going forward.

According to a market watcher, the next phase may depend less on the scale of the breach than on whether these pressures begin to influence wider market conditions.

ETF Outflows and Binance Withdrawals Put Market Liquidity to the Test

CryptosRus identified three areas worth watching in a November 2 post, namely spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF flows, exchange withdrawals, and any attempts by the Binance hacker to convert and move the stolen loot.

Institutional demand is already showing signs of weakness, with BTC and ETH ETFs, respectively, recording $202.59 million and $431.53 million in outflows last week, with the Bitcoin funds alone in the red for over $643 million on Friday, their largest one-day outflow since June 25, when almost $700 million left them. Meanwhile, Ethereum saw five straight days of redemption, the biggest, nearly $156 million out, also happening on Friday.

According to CryptosRus, ETF buyers had supplied the structural support for the industry while it absorbed the shock of the Binance attack, but with that support seemingly fading, they believe spot markets must now carry more of that recovery.

“What confirms the risk: continued net redemptions while Bitcoin fails to build on its rebound,” noted the account.

Looking at exchange withdrawals, Binance reopened the services less than 72 hours after falling victim to the biggest crypto theft in history, with users reportedly taking out about $4.65 billion and depositing slightly more than $1 billion, which runs to roughly $3.64 billion in net outflows. However, while the amount is substantial, it comes to just slightly more than 2% of the assets Binance currently holds, and, importantly, the exit has not been disorderly.

“Users moving funds away from an exchange after a record hack is rational risk management,” CryptosRus wrote. “It becomes a systemic problem only if withdrawals accelerate, settlement deteriorates, stablecoin liquidity contracts, or stress spreads to other venues.”

Hacker Transfers and Bitcoin’s Recovery Under Watch

The third concern is what happens when the Binance attacker moves the stolen stash. According to on-chain investigators, the entity responsible for the hack moved about $242 million through THORChain, Relay, Chainflip, and Symbiosis.

Furthermore, a suspected exploit wallet transferred 486,970 SOL, worth another $46.4 million, and swapped it for BTC via Relay, with CryptosRus suggesting that such transactions could create localized pressure, while cross-chain transfers may make recovering the assets that much harder.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was at $78,000, having barely moved either way in 24 hours but showing a dip of over 2% in seven days. The color was also red across other timeframes, with the OG cryptocurrency declining more than 5% over two weeks and 7% in the last 30 days, while in 12 months its value has dropped by nearly 30%, keeping it 38% below its all-time high from October last year.

The post 3 Signals That Could Shape Bitcoin’s Next Move After Binance Hack appeared first on CryptoPotato.

It seems like the crypto industry can’t catch a break, with one security incident after another. Interestingly, this time, the notorious Lazarus Group may not be behind it.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has now flagged a suspected theft of more than $106 million involving multiple centralized exchange accounts linked to an unnamed EU entity on November 1.

Movement of Funds

According to his findings, the stolen funds were withdrawn in USDC and USDT before the attacker began aggressively swapping USDC for ETH, moving funds through instant exchanges such as WellWallet and Kyrrex, and converting them into XMR through Wagyu.

Instant exchanges are platforms that let users quickly swap crypto assets without opening a full centralized exchange trading account, while Wagyu is a non-custodial, cross-chain instant exchange and bridge built for privacy-focused digital assets.

The funds were also bridged across multiple chains. Although the actor remains unidentified, ZachXBT said he is highly confident the activity is not linked to the North Korean threat actor Lazarus Group, based on multiple laundering indicators.

Another Security Incident

Separately, Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin also reported a security incident. According to Local outlet BitNotícias, more than $40 million in suspicious outflows were flagged by blockchain security firm HypernativeLabs across 10 networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

Mercado Bitcoin later confirmed the incident and added that it had swiftly contained it. But the exchange insisted that customers were unaffected and no data breach occurred. As a precaution, it temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while investigating the incident.

“Our teams are mobilized investigating the case, tracking the assets, and coordinating measures with the competent authorities.”

This comes against the backdrop of the $6.3 billion Binance hack. Additionally, BTCPay Server is investigating reports of unauthorized attackers sweeping hot wallets on older instances. The attack targeted versions 2.4.1 and older, after attackers reportedly gained admin access. The platform said that it has no credible reports of hot wallet drains affecting users on the latest 2.4.7 release and urged users to update their instances.

The post Over $106M in Crypto Stolen From EU Entity? ZachXBT Tracks Attacker’s Laundering Trail appeared first on CryptoPotato.

XRP is attempting to stabilize around $1.25 after briefly slipping toward $1.20 last week, extending the decline that has been unfolding since late September. The token is now back inside a key support zone, where the buyers’ response would likely decide whether the correction pauses or extends toward lower demand.

Ripple Price Analysis: The USDT Pair

On the daily timeframe, XRP remains in a broader corrective phase that began after the early-2026 highs near $2.40. The sharp August recovery from the $1.00 region stalled just below the $1.70-$1.80 supply zone, which had acted as support before the February sell-off. The subsequent lower highs around $1.65 and $1.40 have kept the market structure tilted to the downside.

The asset is now testing the $1.25 zone, which marked the September lows before the rally toward $1.65. A recent daily candle dipped below it to approximately $1.20, but the quick recovery back into the zone suggests buyers are still absorbing selling pressure. On the upside, reclaiming the $1.40 supply area, where the October rebound was rejected, would be the first sign of improving structure, followed by the $1.50 region.

Conversely, a breakdown below $1.25 would likely expose the $1.10 demand zone. Below that, the $1.00 area remains the final major floor visible on the chart, having preceded the entire August advance.

The 4-Hour Chart

The 4-hour chart shows XRP trading within a descending channel since topping near $1.65 in late September, with each rebound producing a lower high. The latest rejection came at the channel’s upper boundary around $1.34, triggering a sharp drop below the $1.25 support and a wick toward $1.20 before demand re-emerged.

Since then, the token has been consolidating in a narrow range around $1.25, inside the marked zone. A move higher would bring the upper trendline, currently near $1.28, into play. A breakout above the channel would weaken the immediate bearish structure and open the way toward the $1.40 supply zone, where sellers stepped in during the October rebound.

On the other hand, losing the $1.20 swing low would undermine the current stabilization attempt and point toward the channel’s lower boundary near $1.15, with the $1.10 demand zone just beneath. Until the upper trendline is cleared, the descending channel remains the dominant short-term pattern, and rebounds are likely to encounter overhead selling pressure, which could push XRP all the way back toward the base of the summer rally.

The post Ripple Price Analysis: What Happens to XRP If $1.2 Support Is Lost? appeared first on CryptoPotato.