Cointelegraph

Binance’s pledge to cover user losses from its $6.3 billion hack helped contain the fallout across crypto markets, analysts told Cointelegraph.
“There doesn’t seem to be any contagion-type effect from the hack, given that Binance is able to cover the losses using its balance sheet,” Martin Lee, market insights lead at DWF Labs, told Cointelegraph. He said investors turned their focus to the implications of the US midterm elections.
Binance’s daily net outflows fell to $458 million in the 24 hours leading to Monday’s publication time, down from $6.1 billion on Nov. 2 after withdrawals resumed, according to DefiLlama.
Attackers stole about $6.3 billion from Binance hot wallets in the Oct. 29 breach, making it the largest crypto hack to date. Bitcoin (BTC) fell as much as 5.7% over the first five days after the hack, a decline CryptoQuant called “modest” in its Wednesday report .
Bitcoin fell roughly 13.6% after the $1.4 billion Bybit hack in 2025 and about 9.9% after the Coincheck hack in 2018. At least 14 of the past 38 hacks CryptoQuant reviewed were followed by steeper Bitcoin declines.
Bitcoin’s drawdown after the Binance hack, compared to previous exchange hacks. Source: CryptoQuant
Major exchange hacks have previously triggered “short-lived drawdowns that markets later absorbed” as long-term holder demand returned, Lacie Zhang, research lead at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph, adding that the Binance hack does not represent a “structural trend reversal” for crypto markets.
Bitfinex analysts say CPI could help confirm a Bitcoin bottom
“Much of the hack’s impact now looks priced in,” with Bitcoin currently trading at an “attractive level,” Bitfinex analysts told Cointelegraph.
“Confirmation of a market bottom now depends on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading due on 10 November, which will shape the Federal Reserve’s next rate decision. Higher bond yields would put pressure on risk assets.”
Market participants priced in an 80% chance that the Federal Reserve will raise rates at its Dec. 9 meeting, up from 69% a month earlier, according to the CMEGroup’s FedWatch tool.
Bitcoin fell 2.5% over 24 hours to $74,580 as of 1:21 pm UTC on Monday, according to CoinMarketCap.
Magazine: Vitalik ‘pivots’ ETH to store of value, crypto suffers after US midterms: Hodler’s Digest

Strategy bought 1,036 Bitcoin for $81.9 million last week, bringing its holdings to 850,364 BTC.
The company paid an average of $79,012 per BTC last week, according to its Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Strategy said it paid a total of $64.16 billion for its Bitcoin holdings, at an average price of $75,456 per coin. Its holdings now account for roughly 4.05% of Bitcoin’s maximum 21 million supply.
Since the start of October, Strategy has spent about $1.06 billion buying back its STRC preferred shares, nearly five times the $219.7 million it spent on Bitcoin over the same period.
Strategy spends $188.3 million on STRC buybacks
Strategy raised $283.8 million in net proceeds last week by selling about $2.05 million shares of tis common stock (MSTR) through its at-the-market offering program.
Strategy used $188.3 million of those proceeds to repurchase about 1.89 million STRC shares, following $208.2 million in buybacks the previous week. It spent $81.9 million on Bitcoin and allocated another $13.6 million to its USD Cash balance.
Strategy’s separate US dollar reserve fell to $4.77 billion from $4.79 billion after the company drew $21.1 million to pay dividends on its preferred stock.
Its USD Cash balance rose about 10% to $146.2 million from $132.7 million.
The latest Bitcoin purchase follows Strategy’s acquisition of 811 BTC for $65.5 million the previous week.
Strategy’s common stock fell 3% to $125 in Monday’s premarket trading, while its STRC preferred shares edged down 0.06% to $99.7, according to Yahoo Finance.
Magazine: What Democrats’ US midterm sweep means for the CLARITY Act

The European Central Bank (ECB), European Commission and European Securities and Markets Authority are seeking nominations for an industry-led group that will draft common standards for holding and settling tokenized securities.
Eligible applicants include EU industry associations, global institutions, private firms and fintech companies. They can apply to the European Tokenisation Standards Group (ETSG) by Nov. 27, with work set to begin in January 2027, according to a release published Monday. The three EU institutions will participate as observers.
The group will develop technical and market standards to help companies hold and settle tokenized securities across different distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms and ensure those platforms can work with existing financial systems. The group aims to produce an initial set of standards by early 2028, according to its mandate. The standards will support Appia, the Eurosystem’s initiative to develop a blueprint for Europe’s tokenized financial markets.
The institutions warned that fragmentation could limit the benefits of tokenization and said the group may recommend ways for EU authorities to encourage firms to adopt its standards.
In September, the Eurosystem launched Pontes, a system that allows financial institutions to settle wholesale transactions in tokenized assets in central bank money.

Coinbase’s national trust bank charter took effect on Friday, according to the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
The applied for the charter in October 2025 and received preliminary approval in April 2026, according to the OCC’s filing record. The charter allows Coinbase National Trust Company to hold digital assets on behalf of clients as a fiduciary, according to the OCC’s preliminary approval letter.
Coinbase plans to offer institutional clients segregated custody accounts, with access to staking, financing and trading through other Coinbase entities, according to its charter application.
Coinbase’s application also outlined plans to explore digital asset payment products and custody services that would allow clients to interact with select smart contracts.
Other crypto companies that received OCC national trust bank charters include Ripple, Circle, BitGo, Fidelity Digital Assets and Paxos.
Crypto.com and Stripe-owned Bridge received conditional approval, while Kraken and EDX Markets are still pursuing charters.

Robinhood has launched a service that lets UK retail investors request shares in eligible US initial public offerings (IPOs) before trading begins.
Customers can use their existing investment accounts to review offering documents in the app and request shares at the IPO price without paying trading commissions, Robinhood said Monday.
Robinhood said it has participated in more than 50 IPOs since launching the service in the US in 2021. The company did not identify which upcoming US IPOs would be available to UK investors.
Cointelegraph asked Robinhood for clarification but did not receive a response by publication.
The expansion follows Robinhood’s third-quarter earnings report in October, when the company reported record revenue of $1.42 billion and net income of $476 million.
Robinhood shares (HOOD) closed at $80.91 on Friday, gaining 3.2%, according to Yahoo Finance. The stock traded at $79.50 in premarket trading on Monday.

US Senator Richard Blumenthal gave Binance, Tether and two Trump-linked crypto firms until Jan. 4, 2027, to voluntarily turn over records sought in Senate inquiries.
Failure to meet the January deadline could prompt further action, he warned.
Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat and incoming chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent follow-up letters Thursday to Binance, Tether, World Liberty Financial and Fight Fight Fight LLC, the company that launched President Donald Trump’s TRUMP memecoin.
The letters asked the companies to begin turning over records by Nov. 30. The Jan. 4 deadline falls a day after Democrats are due to take control of the Senate.
Blumenthal wrote that the subcommittee would consider “alternative measures to obtain compliance” if the companies miss the January deadline. The panel’s current rules allow its chair to issue subpoenas for documents and records.
Cointelegraph sought comment from Binance, Tether, World Liberty Financial and Fight Fight Fight LLC but did not receive responses before publication.
Senate inquiries span sanctions and Trump’s crypto ties
In May 2025, Blumenthal opened an inquiry into potential conflicts of interest involving Trump’s crypto ventures. He sought records from both firms on their ownership, foreign investments and safeguards against conflicts of interest. World Liberty Financial’s lawyers disputed his claims and said the company had no affiliation with Fight Fight Fight LLC.
In June 2026, Blumenthal and four other Senate Democrats called for hearings into a reported $500 million deal for an Abu Dhabi investment firm to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial.
In February, Blumenthal asked Binance for records on transactions linked to Iranian entities and Russia’s shadow fleet. Binance called the underlying reports false in its March reply and said that, to its knowledge, no Binance account had transacted directly with an Iran-based entity. In Thursday’s letter, Blumenthal said Binance still hadn’t turned over any of the requested records.
Blumenthal’s letter to Tether renewed requests for records on the use of USDT by sanctioned entities and on Tether’s dealings with Nxum, a consulting firm co-founded by former White House crypto adviser Bo Hines.
In September, Blumenthal released a report by the panel’s Democratic staff alleging that USDT has become a key part of Iran’s shadow banking network. Tether disputed claims that USDT provides a haven for sanctioned actors, saying it helped authorities freeze nearly $550 million in Iran-linked tokens in 2026.
Magazine: Vitalik ‘pivots’ ETH to store of value, crypto suffers after US midterms: Hodler’s Digest

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded $1.28 billion in net outflows last week, their largest weekly withdrawals since late June.
The withdrawals brought the funds’ net outflows for the year to about $919 million, according to SoSoValue. The funds had already posted $515 million in net outflows in October.
Bitcoin fell below $76,000 last week as traders digested the fallout from Binance’s $6.3 billion hack, uncertainty after the US midterm elections and a sell-off in technology stocks.
BlackRock’s IBIT leads Bitcoin ETF outflows
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), the world’s largest spot Bitcoin ETF by assets, recorded $1.21 billion in net outflows last week, according to Farside Investors data.
The withdrawals extended IBIT’s losing streak to six consecutive trading sessions, with approximately $1.44 billion pulled from the fund since Oct. 30. IBIT accounted for about 95% of the weekly total reported by SoSoValue.
IBIT recorded net outflows for six consecutive trading sessions through Friday, bringing withdrawals since Oct. 30 to about $1.44 billion.
Source: Farside Investors
Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) drew about $93 million in net inflows for the week, despite losing nearly $200 million Thursday.
Bitfire flags further downside risk for Bitcoin
Shifting expectations for US interest rates, uncertainty after the midterms and weakness in technology stocks weighed on crypto markets, Bitfire Research said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.
Bitfire said investors were also reassessing whether Congress could pass the CLARITY Act before year-end.
Bitfire cited a Crypto Fear & Greed Index reading of 25 and a negative Coinbase Premium, which indicates Bitcoin was trading at a discount on Coinbase relative to the indicator’s benchmark.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me
Bitfire described the market as being in a “breakdown and bottom-seeking phase,” pointing to upcoming US inflation data and signals from the Federal Reserve as factors to watch. It said that a sustained break below the $74,400–$75,000 support range could lead to further selling.
Bitcoin traded at $74,049 at publication, below the lower end of that range. It was down 5% over seven days and 2.3% over 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Magazine: Vitalik ‘pivots’ ETH to store of value, crypto suffers after US midterms: Hodler’s Digest

Zcash developers have proposed reducing the blockchain’s target block interval from 25 seconds to 20 seconds, seeking faster transaction confirmations days after activating the NU7 upgrade.
On Sunday, developers ValarDragon and Evan Forbes submitted a draft Zcash Improvement Proposal (ZIP) on the Zcash community forum, saying that they want the change to be included in the next community poll and considered for the upcoming NU7.1 network upgrade.
The reduction would shorten the expected wait for initial transaction confirmations. According to the proposal, this would improve the user experience for point-of-sale payments, exchange deposits and cross-chain swaps.
The developers said the change would not increase the network’s overall daily capacity for private transactions. The proposal would also preserve Zcash’s existing issuance schedule, despite blocks being produced more frequently.
The proposal comes just days after Zcash’s NU7 upgrade went live. On Friday, the NU7 upgrade was activated on the mainnet, cutting the network’s target block interval from 75 seconds to 25 seconds.
The upgrade also introduced a Network Sustainability Mechanism designed to recycle a portion of transaction fees into future mining rewards while preserving Zcash’s 21 million ZEC supply cap.

Threshold Network’s tBTC bridge has resumed onchain operations after a nine-day security pause, but an Aave reserve holding about $120 million in tBTC remains frozen to new deposits and borrowing against the token.
On Sunday, Threshold said the bridge’s underlying network was restarting as security-patched node operators reconnected. These independent operators collectively authorize Bitcoin movements and process deposits and redemptions.
Requests submitted before the shutdown are expected to be processed as more operators return, but the app will not accept new deposits, minting or redemptions until enough nodes are online. Threshold did not announce a restart date.
Threshold initially halted the bridge on Oct. 30 while operators addressed a critical Linux kernel vulnerability that could allow remote attackers to execute code on unpatched servers. The project said it found no evidence the flaw was exploited against tBTC nodes.
Aave froze its tBTC reserve on Ethereum Core on Oct. 31 to prevent additional exposure while redemptions were unavailable. The restriction stops new tBTC deposits and the token from adding borrowing power, while existing users can still withdraw and repay loans.
Threshold said roughly 4,320 BTC remains in bridge wallets against about 4,185 tBTC in circulation, with no unauthorized Bitcoin transfers or token minting detected. Aave risk provider LlamaRisk said it would propose restoring the reserve after Threshold’s operations return to normal.

Binance France is closing up shop in the country. Customers have been notified by email during early November, according to media reports.
All accounts will be closed on Dec. 31, and any assets left on the exchange will be charged monthly fees starting on Nov. 29, Cryptoast, Crypto Briefing and other media reported on Saturday, citing emails sent to users by Binance.
On that date, accounts still maintaining a balance will pay a monthly maintenance fee of 0.025% of the balance, or a minimum of 10 USDC, a stablecoin tracking the US dollar.
To avoid fees, withdrawals must be completed by Nov. 29, the exchange said.
A Binance email cited by Cryptoast said: “Due to the orderly cessation of activities, your Binance France account will close as of December 31, 2026. If you have not withdrawn your crypto-assets as of December 31, 2026, this message constitutes a notification of our intention to consider your account inactive, in accordance with our Terms of Use. This can result in the conversion, transfer or other processing of your crypto-assets.”
Key services restricted in June
Related: Binance’s EU services face scrutiny over licensing exemption: Report
Cointelegraph reported in late June that Binance had notified European Union users access to key services would be restricted after the exchange failed to secure Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory authorization from a member state before a July 1 deadline.
On Sunday, a Binance spokesperson responded to a Cointelegraph query, saying, “Following the end of the MiCA transition period, Binance is progressively restricting certain services for affected users, in line with the schedule previously communicated to them.”
Though asked specifically about reports similar emails had also been sent to users in Spain and Belgium, the spokesperson made no mention of them.
According to media reports, Binance’s global client base counts at least 300 million customers, while the app was downloaded more than 4 million times in the EU last year.
Magazine: Binance hackers raced to move billions before it could be frozen
(Helen Partz contributed to this report.)

Protesters reportedly broke into an Amsterdam construction site for a Microsoft data center and clashed with police.
Dutch authorities said they detained 150-200 people for trespassing.
One protester told a local broadcaster they were trying to stop construction of the data center, according to a report from the Associated Press on Friday.
The report added that Microsoft was aware of the demonstration and responded through a spokesperson: “We understand that people feel strongly about the project, and we respect their right to express those views peacefully,” they said. “However, we do not condone any actions that are unlawful or that put people’s safety at risk.”
A tougher regulatory environment in the US is expected to follow the recent midterm elections, which saw a wave of Democrats promising to clamp down on data centers, which use large amounts of electricity and water, AP reported.
Cointelegraph reported in September that the town of Plattsburgh, New York, held a public hearing to discuss a temporary land use moratorium for operations including AI data centers and crypto mining.
Magazine: Too big to pause: Could an AI slowdown crash the economy?

Binance’s finance chief Kaiser Ng is ​reportedly leaving that company to pursue a new venture.
“Kaiser Ng ​has decided to pursue a new venture ​after more than five years at Binance, ⁠with a transition plan implemented over the last ​half year,” Binance co-CEO Yi He ​said in a statement obtained by Reuters on Saturday.
Ng’s LinkedIn profile says he has been Binance’s chief financial officer since January ⁠2022 ​and before that served in the same capacity at crypto exchange Kraken for about five years.
He will be replaced by Justin Yek, who was formerly vice-president of finance at Airwallex, according to the report.
The news comes a little more than a week after Binance was hacked for a record $6.3 billion.
Cointelegraph reported that hackers stole about $6.3 billion from Binance on Oct. 29, in the largest cryptocurrency theft on record. Binance said it would absorb the losses rather than pass them on to customers.
The attack has been attributed to North Korean hackers by the FBI and several researchers, a charge that country has denied.
Magazine: Asian crypto exchanges batten down the hatches as hacks surge: Asia Express

A former FBI counterintelligence agent admitted to wire fraud and money laundering in stealing almost $2.5 million in cryptocurrency from unidentified adversarial nations and wallets that were under investigation.
Patrick Steven Yaroch, 37, used his investigative positions with access to FBI systems to steal cryptocurrency, then exchange and launder it through financial transactions to conceal its source and ownership.
Yaroch made about 100 fraudulent transfers related to 35 FBI investigations, gaining $2,474,380.66 in proceeds, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday.
He had earlier admitted to unauthorized transfers that involved about $1 million in digital assets, which was reported by Cointelegraph in August.
Yaroch paid off his debts and intended to use the proceeds to finance a new life in Portugal, where he planned to buy a vineyard, according to the statement.
The former agent admitted that his actions had compromised FBI investigations related to criminal groups and adversarial nations.
Yaroch faces up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing is set for March 4, 2027.
Magazine: AI agent disputes head to ‘Internet Court’ — and a jury of AI agents

The US Treasury imposed financial sanctions on eight Canadian money-service companies it claims have done business with sanctioned ‌Iranian entities.
These companies facilitated the exchange of Iranian rials and other currencies for digital assets, enabling international transactions, a US Treasury Department statement said on Friday.
The sanctions, which serve to isolate the companies from the dollar-based financial system, are the latest in a series of Treasury moves against firms outside the US.
These businesses have facilitated transactions with sanctioned Iranian digital asset exchanges, as well as with digital asset addresses associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the Treasury.
Bessent says Canada cannot be a safe haven
Related: US plans to seize $1B in crypto linked to Iran this week: Scott Bessent
“Canada cannot be a safe haven for illicit financial facilitators that provide sanctions evasion services to the Iranian regime and its proxies,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will pursue and disrupt the Iranian regime’s financial channels anywhere in the world.”
Cointelegraph reported in August that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, was targeting crypto exchanges facilitating the transfer of funds to Iran’s IRGC. Bessent said at the time that the US planned to “increase the economic pressure” on Iran, focusing on financial networks funding the country’s regime “in dollars, rials, or crypto.”
Friday’s designations are a continuation of Treasury’s campaign to “disrupt the regime’s exploitation of digital assets to fund terrorism, human rights abuses, and attacks on US personnel and allies,” the statement said.
It added that the actions were coordinated with FINTRAC, Canada’s financial intelligence unit.
Some of the entities subject to this action have changed their names and addresses to evade detection, the statement noted.
Reward of $20 million for Iran nuclear information
In a separate action on Friday, the US Rewards for Justice program offered as much as $20 million and possible relocation for information about Iran’s nuclear program, including its facilities, equipment and personnel.
Iran’s lack of compliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency on safeguards has led to the agency’s loss of “continuity of knowledge” regarding Iran’s production of enriched uranium and components like centrifuges, the statement said.
Magazine: Exchanges reporting crypto gains to IRS becomes tax nightmare

Suspicious prediction market bets were placed shortly before two recent New York Times/Siena political polls were released to the public, according to a report.
Vanderbilt University researchers said a Polymarket user bet almost $200,000 on Oct. 31 that Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts would be re-elected. An hour later, a Times/Siena poll was released showing Ricketts in the lead.
A Friday New York Times report said while it was not clear if the user had access to inside information, they won more than $77,000.
The user also placed similar large bets on other markets, including Kalshi, the report said.
“There’s a series of circumstances here that it’s hard to write it off as a random occurrence,” said Brett Goldstein of the Vanderbilt Institute of National Security. It “requires further investigation.”
Polymarket said it had spotted the trades and was investigating. Kalshi declined comment.
Cointelegraph reported in April that a US Army soldier had been charged after making more than $400,000 by betting on a prediction market allegedly using nonpublic information tied to a US operation involving then Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In a statement, the Department of Justice alleged that Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Absolute Resolve, which led to the capture of Maduro at a residence in Caracas, Venezuela, in January.
Van Dyke allegedly used this information to buy “yes” shares in related Polymarket contracts, including “Maduro out by January 31” and “Trump invokes War Powers against Venezuela by January 31,” according to the DOJ.
Magazine: What Democrats’ US midterm sweep means for the CLARITY Act

Chipmaker Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s relationship with President Donald Trump probably won’t save the company from a more hostile Washington in the post-election era, according to Semafor.
Even as victorious Democrats look to take the lead in regulatory committees, Republicans are planning to impose tougher export controls on chips.
Three Republican House members have asked Huang to appear in a briefing on whether he had been targeted by a Chinese intelligence agent, according to Semafor’s report on Friday.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren wants Huang to testify before Congress on Nvidia’s chip sales to China and other related matters, Semafor said.
Cointelegraph reported in March that Trump appointed leaders from the crypto, blockchain, AI and technology industries to his Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, including Nvidia CEO Huang
Huang had previously met with the president to discuss export controls for Nvidia’s chips,
Magazine: What Democrats’ US midterm sweep means for the CLARITY Act

The US Department of Treasury on Friday issued an order to cut cryptocurrency exchange MEXC Global off from the US’ financial system after accusing it of facilitating at least $16 billion in transactions linked to sanctions evasion, cybercrime and other illicit activity.
The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) asserted that MEXC handled transactions involving sanctioned groups in Iran, Russia and North Korea between May 2021 and May 2026. This included around $1.5 billion in transactions linked to Russian sanctions evasion, according to the official press release.
The order effectively bans US financial institutions from processing money transfers involving MEXC and will take effect 30 days after it is published in the Federal Register.
“Financial institutions cannot have it both ways: Either you support the Iranian regime, or you have access to the U.S. financial system,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Treasury will continue to sever the Iranian regime’s economic lifelines and thwart its desperate attempts to circumvent U.S. sanctions using digital assets.”
The action is part of Operation Economic Outcast, a US Treasury campaign launched in August with aims to cut off financial entites that help Iran evade sanctions.
According to DefiLlama, the exchange held about $4.48 billion in total assets as of Friday. Cointelegraph contacted MEXC for comment but had not received a response by publication.
Related: Binance hack is ‘cyber war,’ TRM Labs executive says

The $6.3 billion Binance hack sent shockwaves through the crypto industry. Following a series of increasingly severe cybersecurity incidents, the attack on the world’s biggest crypto exchange demonstrated how far state-backed hackers can, and will, go.
TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company, was on the front lines of efforts to stop the theft, releasing a report in its aftermath. The firm was early to attribute the attack to the North Korean hacking group, TraitorTrader, citing “indisputable” onchain and offchain evidence. The $1.5 billion hack of Bybit in February 2025 was attributed to the same group.
Binance said in its postmortem on Nov. 3 that attackers posed as recruiters to plant malware on an engineer’s work computer, then used a compromised internal AI tool to reach its wallet-signing service.
Ari Redbord, TRM Labs’ global head of policy and government affairs, told Cointelegraph that although the industry’s coordinated response to the attack was unprecedented, “we are only going to see much more of this.”
Unprecedented response from the industry
The speed and scale of industry’s response to the hack were among the factors that stood out to Redbord.
Tether froze 971.1 million USDt (USDT) tokens just 37 minutes after the main sweep. Combined, stablecoin issuers froze tokens worth about $2.67 billion, according to TRM. “Nothing like that has ever been done before,” Redbord said. “They were able to claw back 40% right out the gate.”
The race to catch stolen funds before hackers can move them offchain is a critical part of defending against such attacks. TRM’s Redbord explained that the Beacon Network, an intelligence-sharing system TRM launched in 2025, allowed companies to coordinate quickly to immobilize the funds before working to seize them. “Normally I see a few Beacon alerts maybe every day. I’ve seen, I don’t know, hundreds or maybe even a thousand Beacon alerts over the last few days,” he said.
The push for coordination comes as Bloomberg reported on Nov. 4 that the T3 Financial Crime Unit, which TRM formed with Tron and Tether in September 2024, disbanded in late August, with sources citing slow responses and poor coordination. Tether said it would continue working with TRM through Beacon.
Although Redbord called for greater coordination, he warned that such efforts may do little to deter future attacks. He noted that North Korea’s Oct. 29 theft was equivalent to roughly a third of the country’s GDP and accounted for half of the $12.5 billion stolen by state-backed hackers since 2017. Even if attackers recover only $1 billion, the potential payoff remains enormous, he argued.
“North Korea will keep doing this as long as it’s effective,” he said.
From defense to offense
Redbord argued that stopping such attacks requires offensive action from governments in response to North Korea’s use of hackers operating as an arm of the state.
TRM’s capacity gap report found that the gap between attackers and cybersecurity defenders continues to widen, driven by hackers’ early adoption of frontier technologies such as AI. He said law enforcement and compliance teams need AI to find and patch vulnerabilities as quickly as hackers can exploit them.
“Every time North Korea hacks, we should be hacking them back,” he continued, calling for offensive cyber operations and action against laundering networks and banks that hackers use to cash out. “This is cyber war,” he said.
Magazine: What Democrats’ US midterm sweep means for the CLARITY Act

Crypto-linked Visa debit card provider Gnosis Pay disclosed a security breach on Friday that exposed customers’ payment card details, home addresses and cryptocurrency wallet addresses.
Gnosis Pay said it detected unauthorized access to its legacy consumer card system on Nov. 3 and began containing the breach within two hours. The company said customer funds and its separate enterprise platform, which powers white-label card programs, were unaffected.
According to breach notifications reviewed by Cointelegraph, the company identified exposed information including full payment card numbers, expiration dates, CVV codes, customer names, home addresses and wallet addresses linked to affected accounts. The compromised data also included email addresses, phone numbers, nationalities and, in some cases, banking details such as IBAN and BIC information.
Gnosis Pay customer shares a breach notification detailing exposed personal and financial data. Source: Lefteris Karapetsas
One notification also confirmed that the customer’s card was canceled on Nov. 3, with no suspicious transactions or movement of funds detected.
Gnosis Pay said it replaced compromised security credentials, addressed the vulnerability and made 3D Secure verification mandatory for online payments until the legacy system’s planned retirement on Dec. 20. It also warned customers about phishing attempts using their personal or transaction details and said it was arranging monitoring for potential misuse of the stolen data.
According to data from OpenRate, a third-party platform tracking crypto card activity, Gnosis Pay had around 2,400 daily active cardholders and processed $263,200 in transactions over the previous 24 hours.
The company did not disclose how many customers were affected and did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Magazine: Binance hackers raced to move billions before it could be frozen

Smaller cryptocurrencies could become available in US 401(k) retirement plans under a proposed Labor Department rule, but experts say they may face more challenges than Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
The rule reached the White House for final review on Thursday, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. It aims to make it easier for retirement plans to offer alternative investments like crypto, while offering more legal protection for employers and plan managers.
The Labor Department’s March proposal neither specifies which digital assets could be included nor sets a minimum market capitalization requirement. However, it does guide retirement plan managers to consider six factors when choosing: performance, fees, liquidity, valuation, benchmarks and complexity.
The proposal could open the door to more cryptocurrencies in retirement plans, however, it does not guarantee they will be offered. And when it comes to smaller tokens, experts say they could face challenges because of their limited history, liquidity and other risks.
Why smaller cryptocurrencies could face challenges
Teresa Goody Guillén, managing partner at Bellementis PLLC, said Bitcoin and Ether are likely to be the first cryptocurrencies offered because of their established markets and investment products. Bitcoin and Ether are the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, at approximately $1.5 trillion and $273 billion, respectively, according to CoinGecko data as of 20:01 UTC on Nov. 6.
Still, that doesn’t automatically exclude altcoins, she said. Instead, those managing 401(k) plans would need to show that their investment choices are sensible.
“The real question isn’t which cryptocurrencies regulators pick – it’s whether an investment meets the same standards of prudence, liquidity, valuation and investor protection as any other retirement option,” Guillén said.
She added that while a digital asset’s market cap matters, it shouldn’t be the deciding factor. “Big doesn’t mean suitable, and small doesn’t mean disqualified,” Guillén said. “Digital assets shouldn’t get special treatment, or be excluded because they use different technology.”
Bernardo Brites, co-founder and CEO of Trace Finance, echoed Guillén sentiment, adding: “Run any token through that list and the answer is short. Bitcoin passes clearly. Ether passes; everything else fails on track record or benchmark before a fiduciary ever gets to market cap.”
Brites explained, in this situation, market cap matters only indirectly. “The practical test is simpler: can a plan committee document a daily, reliable price from a regulated wrapper?” he said. “If not, it is not going in.”
ETFs could come before direct crypto holdings
While the Labor Department’s proposal does not limit crypto investments to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or managed funds, experts said those products will likely be offered before direct crypto holdings.
“ETFs and managed funds will likely come first because they fit existing custody and recordkeeping systems,” Guillén said. Whereas holding cryptocurrencies directly would raise additional concerns about storage, cybersecurity and pricing, Guillén said. Still, she added that those risks should not automatically rule them out.
Brites also expects crypto investments to become available gradually. He said existing brokerage options would likely come first, followed by standalone ETFs and funds that include small amounts of crypto.
He expects some crypto investment options to become available in 2027, followed by ETFs at larger employers later that year. Crypto could become more widely available in retirement funds by 2028, he said.
“The rule changes the legal risk, not the plumbing, and the plumbing is slower,” Brites said. “White House review can take up to ninety days, then publication, then an effective date typically sixty days later.”
Legal uncertainties remain
Brites further explained that legal uncertainty could also slow adoption. The proposal would offer retirement plan managers some protection from lawsuits, but it would not prevent them from being sued over their investment decisions.
He also warned that future administrations could reverse the rule, a possibility that could make employers hesitant to add crypto to long-term retirement plans.
“The 2022 guidance was reversed in 2025; a fiduciary signing a ten-year plan design has to consider that this rule could be reversed too,” he said. “And with courts giving less deference to agencies, how much weight the safe harbor carries in litigation is itself unsettled.”