North Korean Hackers Behind Binance’s $6.3 Billion Heist

Once again, Pyongyang stands accused of orchestrating a $6.3 billion heist against the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Binance’s preliminary investigation suggested the intrusion originated from a compromised software engineer’s laptop. The breach subsequently provided attackers with an entry point into one of the exchange’s internal services.

However, subsequent forensic findings uncovered additional compromised systems, suggesting a far more sophisticated operation than the straightforward theft of a single employee’s credentials. Several blockchain intelligence firms, including Chainalysis, Elliptic and TRM Labs, attributed the theft to Tradertraitor, an assessment reinforced on Oct. 31 when the FBI identified the North Korean hacking operation as responsible for the attack.

Tradertraitor is closely linked to the Lazarus Group, operating as a specialized, financially motivated subgroup and a designation for associated malware and cyberespionage campaigns within North Korea’s broader state-sponsored hacking apparatus. The Lazarus Group has historically controlled substantial bitcoin holdings, and the latest theft of 18,270.2 BTC ostensibly positions North Korea as the world’s third-largest nation-state holder of the cryptocurrency.

Although liquidating illicitly acquired bitcoin is widely considered a formidable challenge, Pyongyang has repeatedly demonstrated an apparent ability to convert stolen assets into usable funds with relative ease.

Inside the Bitcoin Theft That Emptied 95% of a Binance Hot Wallet

The latest Binance theft presents a particularly intriguing mystery, as the precise mechanism behind the bitcoin extraction remains unclear. The stolen funds, currently valued at $1.4 billion, moved through 11 separate transfers before being distributed into wallets containing varying amounts of BTC.

In total, the funds now reside across 19 distinct wallets, with all transactions confirmed at Bitcoin block height 973732. The stolen funds originated from a Binance hot wallet identified as bc1qm34lsc65zpw79lxes69zkqmk6ee3ewf0j77s3h, which currently retains approximately 5.495 BTC valued at $426,000.

Since its creation in 2021, this exceptionally active address has processed an astonishing 16,517,012.48 BTC in incoming transfers and 16,517,006.98 BTC in outgoing transactions. In June 2022, the wallet commanded a balance of 138,000 BTC and has maintained transactional connections with major industry participants, including centralized exchange (CEX) platforms like Kraken, OKX, Bullish, Bybit, Coinbase, and dozens of others.

Addresses reportedly associated with Wintermute, the algorithmic cryptocurrency market maker, have also interacted with the wallet on 76 occasions, involving more than $900 million worth of bitcoin. When Tradertraitor compromised the wallet, it contained approximately 19,200 BTC, with the hacking syndicate siphoning off nearly 95% of its holdings in less than 20 minutes. Of the 19 wallets attributed to Pyongyang’s hackers, 17 contain precisely 1,000 BTC apiece, while the remaining two hold 832.5 BTC and 437.7 BTC, respectively.

Stolen Bitcoin Sits Dormant as North Korea’s Laundering History Raises Questions

For now, the stolen bitcoin remains untouched across these addresses, although their current dormancy offers no guarantee of permanent inactivity. Splitting the haul created more outputs to monitor, but it didn’t erase their origins. Onchain investigators and blockchain intelligence firms will undoubtedly scrutinize these bitcoin addresses, as stolen BTC frequently remains dormant for extended periods before its eventual movement, though such delays are far from universal.

Meanwhile, wallets directly attributed to the Lazarus Group by Arkham Intelligence currently contain a comparatively modest 23.38 BTC, a dramatic departure from the approximately 14,000 BTC they controlled in March 2025. This suggests that North Korea has demonstrated a considerable capacity to systematically disperse thousands of bitcoin and ultimately find avenues to liquidate the illicit holdings. Although an extensive recovery effort is underway to help Binance reclaim its stolen assets, Bitcoin offers no mechanism for simply freezing the funds.

Bitcoin’s Unbreakable Rules Leave Investigators Watching

Stablecoin issuers can immobilize assets through restrictions embedded in their token contracts, but Bitcoin has no equivalent central authority capable of blacklisting addresses or reversing confirmed transactions. Consequently, investigators must identify potential intervention points, such as exchanges, brokers, or other intermediaries through which the stolen proceeds might eventually pass. Alternatively, obtaining control of the corresponding private keys could provide a means of seizing the bitcoin. Neither approach, however, constitutes an administrative reversal of a transaction recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain.

For now, the transparent ledger provides a detailed evidentiary trail without conferring control over the assets themselves. Investigators may trace every movement of the stolen bitcoin, but visibility alone grants them no authority to transfer it.

TL;DR: Ondo launched seven investment-portfolio tokens on Solana for eligible non-US investors. Its reported $45 million in earlier portfolio TVL refers to Ethereum and BNB Chain, not Solana alone.

Ondo Finance has expanded its Intelligent Portfolios to Solana, bringing seven tokenized basket products to eligible investors outside the United States. The initiative places managed exposure to equities and ETFs in the same onchain setting that already hosts liquid trading and lending applications.

The seven-token rollout

Ondo Finance announced on October 29 that seven of its Intelligent Portfolios were available on Solana for eligible investors outside the United States. Each product combines exposures to a defined basket of tokenized equities or exchange-traded funds in one token, so a holder need not purchase and rebalance every underlying position individually.

The lineup covers income, growth and thematic strategies, including a Magnificent Seven and crypto-related portfolio and an artificial-intelligence leaders portfolio. Ondo said three of the strategies were developed by BlackRock for use by Ondo. The company also reported that the portfolio products previously launched on Ethereum and BNB Chain exceeded $45 million of total value locked within their first weeks; that figure is for those earlier deployments, not a Solana-only balance.

How portfolio exposure is packaged

The move extends tokenization beyond single instruments into packaged investment strategies. It may simplify how a customer obtains a diversified exposure and could give other financial applications a composable token rather than a basket of separate contracts. But the value of that packaging depends on portfolio construction, fees, tracking accuracy and market liquidity rather than just the convenience of one token.

Solana gains a new type of tokenized investment product, but the distinction between access and adoption remains important. Seven portfolio tickers can exist without seven deep secondary markets, and early total-value-locked figures from other networks should not be presented as Solana inflows. Users will also need to understand the portfolio’s exact composition and rules. A token that represents an investment strategy is not itself a claim that the strategy will outperform a conventional fund.

Who can use it and the risks

A portfolio strategy defines target exposures while smart contracts implement allocation and scheduled rebalancing rules. Users hold a single transferable onchain token that provides economic exposure to its basket of Ondo Stocks. The underlying tokens represent tokenized securities exposure and connect to traditional market liquidity, so blockchain transferability does not remove the legal, pricing and redemption mechanics of the represented assets.

Availability remains restricted to eligible users in permitted jurisdictions, specifically excluding the United States in the announcement. Tokens trading around the clock are not the same as underlying stock markets operating around the clock. Holdings can fluctuate, trading may be thin and a token’s price may diverge from its economic value under stressed conditions.

The next demand signals

Useful evidence will include Solana-specific assets under management, turnover, tracking performance, liquidity depth and integration with independent DeFi venues. Investors should read the precise product conditions and avoid interpreting references to BlackRock-developed strategies as a guarantee of performance or liquidity.

A pilot, framework or technical partnership should not be conflated with a live secondary market. Investors need to know whether assets have actually been issued, whether redemption is possible and where responsibility sits if records disagree.

Primary source: Ondo Finance primary disclosure. Statements and figures are attributed to the organisation providing them; source dates are noted in the article metadata.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TLDR

• OpenAI is now seeking up to $20 billion, down from an earlier target of about $30 billion.
• The round values the company at $1.25 trillion post-money, down from $1.4 trillion.
• Some investors trimmed their commitments after a Friday deadline, so the first close may fall short of $20 billion.
• The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.46% Friday, with Intel down 25%, Micron down 5.5% and Nvidia down 4%.
• UAE investors, including MGX, and Coatue are leading the round.

---

OpenAI is looking to raise up to $20 billion in its latest funding round. That is $10 billion less than the roughly $30 billion it first targeted, CNBC and the Financial Times reported.

BREAKING: OpenAI cuts its funding target by $10B to $20B and slashes its valuation target from $1.4T to $1.25T, per FT.

The move comes as investor concerns over AI spending grow and tech stocks face a major sell-off. pic.twitter.com/5vyd0x7irU

— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) October 31, 2026

The Financial Times said the round values the ChatGPT maker at $1.25 trillion post-money. The earlier target valuation was $1.4 trillion, a cut of $150 billion.

The round has not closed, and a person familiar with the deal told CNBC the figures could still change. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI set a Friday deadline for investors to commit. Some backers chose to reduce their allocations, so the first close is expected to bring in less than $20 billion.

Investors from the United Arab Emirates are leading the round alongside Coatue. That group includes the state-backed tech fund MGX.

Who Is Putting Money In

The UAE group is expected to provide the largest share of the funding. The deal would also give OpenAI the option to lease newly built computing capacity in the region.

Other venture firms expected to take part include Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. The list reads like a who’s who of Silicon Valley money.

OpenAI is also racing the clock. Rival Anthropic is expected to make its stock market debut soon, and both companies are chasing a similar pool of investors.

A Rough Week for AI Stocks

The timing is awkward. The Nasdaq 100 dropped 3.46% on Friday as investors questioned whether huge AI spending will pay off.

Intel fell 25% on weak revenue guidance. Micron slid 5.5%, and Nvidia lost 4%.

Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon have spent heavily on AI infrastructure in recent years. All three issued capital spending figures or forecasts last week that came in below analyst estimates.

Alphabet had its worst trading day ever on Thursday after search revenue missed expectations. Chief business officer Philipp Schindler said lower monetization in AI Mode played a part.

OpenAI is planning an IPO in 2027. If investors commit less than the revised goal, it could enter that year with less fresh capital than it wanted, even as its computing needs keep growing.

CNBC confirmed the lower $20 billion target on Saturday, and the round remains open.

The volume of tokenized stocks on the Ethereum network grew by 170% over the year, reaching $827 million by the end of October 2026. According to a fresh report from the analytics platform Token Terminal, the real-world assets (RWA) sector has outgrown the experimental stage. 

While the total value of tokenized securities on alternative chains is measured in billions of dollars, the volume on Ethereum remains in the range from $827 million to $841 million, and the network remains one of the key channels for digitized equities.

The rapid growth of the sector is largely tied to how the digital assets themselves are structured. At the moment, 86% of tokenized stocks are issued under the model of classic stablecoins: the instruments are fully backed by the underlying asset in a 1:1 ratio and, at the same time, function without the direct operational or legal participation of the issuer of the original securities. 

Ethereum, which currently controls 53.8% of the global stablecoin market ($158.71 billion out of a total of $294.75 billion), carries its well-tested and liquid infrastructure over to traditional securities. 

Professional market participants assess this shift as a potential repetition of the success of stablecoins, but this time in the stock market.

Parallel reality

While spot infrastructure is being built on Ethereum, a completely different, speculative life is unfolding in the derivatives market. Here, historical records are being set on decentralized venues: open interest, with contracts on the same tokenized stocks accounting for the largest share, has reached $1.76 billion. 

An example of this ecosystem is the Hyperliquid platform, whose native token HYPE is trading at around $87.70. The coin is supported by an inflow of new holders, as well as automated tokenomics: the platform directs $1.24 million daily to buying back HYPE from the open market.

Representatives of the investment community have outlined the zone from $70 to $76 as a key long-term support level. Current market conditions point to a possible move toward the $90–$100 range. 

The existence of this parallel reality — from spot on Ethereum to highly liquid futures on Hyperliquid — shows that the blockchain is becoming a multi-level environment for different types of capital.

TLDR

• Big Tech lost more than $1 trillion last week as investors questioned heavy AI spending.
• Alphabet had its worst single-day drop on record, and Intel fell nearly 29%.
• Binance reported a security breach involving an estimated $6.3 billion in digital assets.
• Apple, Palantir and AMD report earnings early in the week.
• The October jobs report is due Friday, November 6.

---

U.S. stocks ended last week sharply lower after weak tech earnings and concerns about AI spending. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.09% on Friday to 51,770.31. The S&P 500 dropped 1.82% to 7,580.07.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.46% to 28,384.85. For October, the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.3%, its biggest monthly decline since March 2025. The S&P 500 slipped 0.9% for the month, while the Dow gained 1.7%.

Big Tech lost more than $1 trillion in value last week. Alphabet fell more than 12% on Thursday, its worst single-day decline on record. The drop wiped out over $500 billion in market value.

Wall Street is obliterating BIG TECH, with Intel plunging nearly 30% and AMD losing more than 11%.

And the rest of the market? Surprisingly calm.

Nvidia is down 4.32%, Broadcom 5.63%, while Microsoft and Amazon are also in the red.

But ENERGY, UTILITIES, REAL ESTATE and parts… https://t.co/1LJc3JxKG8 pic.twitter.com/cpNjR89sjd

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 30, 2026

Nvidia fell more than 4% on Friday, and Advanced Micro Devices lost nearly 11%. Intel dropped nearly 29%, its worst trading day since 1974, after it issued a weak earnings outlook.

Amazon reported negative free cash flow of $42.4 billion for the 12 months ended September 30. A year earlier, it was positive $14.8 billion. The company said higher spending on AI infrastructure drove the change.

Reddit shares fell about 29% on Friday. Third-quarter revenue rose 53% to $895 million, but the company’s fourth-quarter forecast came in below analyst estimates. Reddit said Google Search referrals fell by more than 1 million per week in October.

Crypto and Energy Markets

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, reported a security breach involving an estimated $6.3 billion in digital assets. The company said a hacked employee laptop may have given an attacker access to its systems.

Binance paused deposits and withdrawals while it worked to contain the damage. About $3 billion in affected assets have been frozen on blockchain networks. The exchange said it will cover customer losses with its own funds and emergency reserves.

Bitcoin traded near $76,650 on Friday. The full extent of the Binance losses is still unclear.

Energy stocks held up better. ExxonMobil posted about $17.5 billion in quarterly profit, up 130% from a year earlier. Chevron earned roughly $10.4 billion, up 185%. U.S. crude oil rose to about $102.95 per barrel.

Anthropic filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 26. The company is preparing for a possible Nasdaq listing under the ticker ANT. Its filing showed more than $16 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026.

What to Watch This Week

Apple reports Monday, November 2, after the market closes. It will be the first earnings call for new CEO John Ternus. Analysts expect earnings of $1.99 per share on revenue of about $113.40 billion.

#earnings for the week of November 2, 2026https://t.co/iWOoty816a$AAPL $PLTR $AMD $DIBS $APP $AEHR $QCOM $AMC $SHOP $MRNA $SMCI $TXG $UBER $LITE $COHR $CHKP $KTOS $NVTS $ANET $FSLY $AAOI $BMRN $VSH $NET $OKLO $DOCS $TEM $PFE $CIFR $EL $CAVA $RIOT $BKNG $TEAM $NVO $ABNB $ETN… pic.twitter.com/i5Z2572tiF

— Earnings Whispers (@eWhispers) October 30, 2026

Palantir also reports Monday. Analysts forecast earnings of $0.41 per share on revenue of about $2.18 billion.

AMD reports Tuesday after the close, with analysts expecting $1.95 per share on revenue of about $13.09 billion. Super Micro Computer reports the same day.

Uber, Qualcomm, Arm Holdings and McDonald’s report Wednesday. DoorDash, which agreed last week to merge with Instacart, also reports that day.

Shopify, Cloudflare, IonQ and Airbnb report later in the week. Moderna reports Friday before the market opens.

U.S. midterm elections are Tuesday, November 3. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey is also due that day. The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at its October 28 meeting.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release October job numbers Friday, November 6, at 8:30 a.m. ET. Employers added 29,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.2%. The 10-year Treasury yield ended last week near 4.93%.

TL;DR: Circle published technical guidance for issuer-controlled ERC-20 transfers using CCTP infrastructure beyond USDC. Its Arc demonstration is a testnet walkthrough, not a promise of universal production support.

Circle has detailed how issuers can use its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol infrastructure for assets other than USDC. A new developer guide describes token identity, burn-and-mint transfers and the controls that need to be configured before an ERC-20 can operate across supported networks.

Moving non-USDC tokens

Circle published an October 30 developer guide explaining how the message and attestation infrastructure behind Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol can support issuer-operated ERC-20 assets beyond USDC. The guide walks through native deployment or configuration of an existing custom token, including an example using Arc Testnet and another supported EVM network.

For USDC, CCTP is associated with burning tokens on a source network and minting native USDC on a destination after a verified message. Circle says an analogous route exists for other issuer-operated ERC-20s through CrossChainTokenService and an associated token manager. The guide describes a common token identity across chains, rather than treating a wrapped bridge token as an entirely separate economic instrument.

How the attestation flow works

Issuer-controlled tokenisation faces a fragmentation problem: a digital asset represented separately on several chains can have inconsistent liquidity, identity and accounting. A controlled burn-and-mint model offers one way to keep the economic asset coherent while letting it appear where different applications operate. This matters for payments, collateral management and treasury rebalancing, although it does not guarantee universal chain support.

For investors, interoperability is infrastructure, not a direct price catalyst. A project may make its token easier to move between venues without altering its cash flows, supply rights or governance. The more consequential commercial question is whether regulated issuers choose the tooling for real assets and payments, and whether those flows outweigh the costs and risks of the new transfer mechanism. Circle has published implementation guidance; it has not supplied a universal adoption forecast.

Where the trust boundaries sit

The source contract burns the amount to be transferred and emits a message; Circle’s Iris service attests the message; a destination contract receives the attestation and mints the corresponding supply. Operators configure roles, caps, rate limits, trusted domains and ownership. The transfer and service details differ from USDC’s familiar TokenMessengerV2 path, and a developer must confirm the correct contracts and quote fees for a specific route.

The primary source is a technical guide, not a statement that every ERC-20 can immediately move across every network in production. Arc Testnet examples must not be confused with deployment on a production system. Circle says it is not the issuer or guarantor of third-party tokens, and developers remain responsible for their own token permissions, legal obligations and transfer risks.

Tests before production

Developers evaluating the approach should test domain trust configuration, fees, rate-limit behaviour, decimal consistency and failure recovery before transferring material value. The adoption question is whether issuers can reduce fragmented bridge operations without concentrating unacceptable risk in attestations, administrative roles or third-party services.

Institutions may use public, private or hybrid networks, and each choice creates different expectations about access, settlement finality and oversight. Interoperability attempts to connect those environments without pretending they have identical rules.

Primary source: Circle primary disclosure. Statements and figures are attributed to the organisation providing them; source dates are noted in the article metadata.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TLDR

• Apple, Palantir, AMD, Shopify and Uber report earnings between November 2 and November 6.
• The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.3% in October, its biggest monthly loss since March 2025.
• Apple reports Monday, with new CEO John Ternus facing investor questions.
• AMD reports Tuesday after its data center revenue doubled last quarter.
• The October US jobs report is due Friday, November 6.

---

US stocks head into a busy week of earnings reports. Apple, Palantir, AMD, Shopify and Uber all report results between November 2 and November 6. Investors are also waiting on US jobs data that could shape the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision.

The reports follow a hard October for tech stocks. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.3% during the month, its biggest monthly loss since March 2025, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.9%. AI spending, company profits and interest rates continue to drive market mood.

Apple Reports Fourth-Quarter Earnings on Monday

Apple reports fiscal fourth-quarter results on Monday, November 2. The report will give investors a fresh look at iPhone demand, consumer spending and the company’s artificial intelligence plans.

New CEO John Ternus is expected to face questions about long-term growth and competition in AI. Apple recently launched new iPhone models, including its first foldable device. That launch gives the company another possible source of growth.

Concerns about product quality and AI execution could affect how investors react. Key items include iPhone revenue, services growth, profit margins and management’s outlook for the holiday quarter.

Palantir Posts Results After the Bell

Palantir Technologies reports third-quarter earnings after the market closes on Monday. The AI-focused software company has seen growing demand for its data analytics platforms from businesses and government organizations.

Palantir beat expectations last quarter and raised its financial outlook. Its high valuation leaves little room for disappointing results.

Investors will examine US commercial revenue, new customer growth, operating margins and full-year revenue guidance. They will also watch government contracts and demand for the company’s Artificial Intelligence Platform.

AMD Faces Questions on AI Chip Demand

Advanced Micro Devices reports third-quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, November 3. The company competes with Nvidia in data center computing for AI. It has become an important player in the fast-growing AI chip market.

Last quarter, AMD’s data center revenue doubled from a year earlier. Even so, investors were let down by parts of its profit outlook. Strong sales growth alone did not satisfy Wall Street.

This time, attention will turn to data center revenue, AI accelerator sales, gross margins and expectations for future demand. The results may also show how much companies are spending on AI infrastructure.

Shopify Reports Before Tuesday’s Open

Shopify reports third-quarter earnings before the market opens on Tuesday. The e-commerce company beat expectations last quarter and gave an upbeat outlook that helped support its share price.

Investors want to know if merchants are still growing sales on the platform despite economic uncertainty. Shopify also announced a partnership involving Meta’s Muse AI, which has drawn interest in AI-powered shopping.

Gross merchandise volume, subscription revenue, merchant solutions growth and operating profit will be in focus.

Uber Eyes Robotaxis and Profit

Uber Technologies reports third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, November 4. Investors are watching profitability, delivery services and the company’s push into autonomous vehicles. Uber recently deepened its partnership with Nvidia to support self-driving technology.

In its previous report, Uber disappointed Wall Street with weaker-than-expected revenue. Investors will check whether bookings growth and better efficiency can lift results.

Other items to watch are gross bookings, mobility revenue, adjusted EBITDA, free cash flow and updates on autonomous vehicle partnerships.

Jobs Report Closes Out the Week

The October jobs report is due Friday, November 6. It follows a weak September report, when the economy added just 29,000 jobs. The unemployment rate rose to 4.2%.

Earlier job figures were also revised lower, which raised concerns about the labor market. A weaker-than-expected report could change expectations for Federal Reserve interest rates, which may affect technology and other growth stocks.

Super Micro Computer, Arm Holdings, Qualcomm and Cloudflare also report earnings this week. Their results will add more detail on AI infrastructure spending.

A headline claiming that 1.8 billion XRP moved across the XRP Ledger within 24 hours has revived discussion of a network recovery. The figure hasn’t been independently verified for a dated 24-hour period, so treat it as a reported claim, not confirmed evidence of a new trend.

XRP Legder activity

The XRP Ledger handles payments, decentralized exchange transactions and tokenized assets. Payment volumes reflects the network activity, but the number needs context. Large transfers can be exchange custody movements, internal treasury operations or transfers between wallets controlled by the same entity. 

None of that necessarily signals fresh investor demand or new capital entering the market.

Recent verified reporting shows why the distinction matters. One October snapshot had daily payment volume jumping to about 137.7 million XRP, still below its 30-day average of roughly 496 million. 

Another October reading, around 363.3 million XRP, came with the same caution: a one-day rise did not establish a sustained recovery.

A reading near 1.8 billion XRP usually comes at the end of the week where most of the network activity occurs. The most likely outcome is always the same: high activity by Thursday and Friday and a tubmling on the weekend, with a recovery starting on Monday.

Others indicators are relevant

Other indicators help separate real adoption from a passing spike: active addresses, successful payment counts, decentralized-exchange trading, liquidity and how transaction sizes are distributed. Even high transaction counts can mislead when automated activity dominates, as recent investigations into small-value stablecoin payments on XRPL showed.

Network usage and XRP’s market price are only indirectly related. More settlement activity doesn’t guarantee higher token prices, and speculative buying can lift prices with no matching improvement in usage. Broader market conditions and exchange liquidity matter too.

A verified natural burst of XRP movement could mean renewed engagement with the network. A more convincing signal would be several consecutive days of stronger, widely distributed activity, backed by improving liquidity and sustained user demand, which rarely happens.