I. Market Trends
On 11/3, BTC fluctuated broadly between $76,000 and $78,000. In the early hours of 11/4, as results from the U.S. midterm elections came in, the Democratic Party gained control of both the House and the Senate, and BTC briefly dipped to around $75,600.
The market then staged a V-shaped recovery, with buying picking up after U.S. stocks opened. Based on Yahoo Finance BTC-USD daily data, BTC reached a low of around $75,628 and a high of around $81,080 on 11/4, closing at around $80,405, up approximately 4% on the day.
ETH also moved lower, briefly dipping to around $2,245 before rebounding and breaking above $2,400. The ETH/BTC exchange rate recovered to around 0.0302, indicating improved short-term performance by ETH relative to BTC.
The funds situation still warrants cautious observation. Over the previous five trading days, U.S. spot BTC ETFs saw cumulative net outflows of about $1.066 billion, but on 11/4 they shifted to a single-day net inflow of about $74.6 million. This is not yet enough to confirm that fund flows have reversed; inflows over several consecutive days should be monitored.
II. Key Web3 Events This Week
1. U.S. Midterm Elections and Progress on Cryptocurrency Legislation
The U.S. midterm elections took place on 11/3, with Democrats gaining control of the House and Senate. The new Congress is expected to take office in January 2027; until then, the current Congress will retain its existing seat composition.
For the cryptocurrency industry, the main impact concerns the market structure bill and the future direction of regulation.
CLARITY Act:
The House version passed in July 2025.
On September 15, 2026, the Senate failed to pass the procedural vote required to begin consideration of the bill, falling short of the 60-vote threshold.
With Democrats gaining control of the new Congress, advancing the bill in its original form has become even more difficult.
On 11/4, reports emerged that House Democrats were discussing introducing their own market structure bill. Proposals include expanding the SEC’s regulatory role, strengthening investor protections, and restricting conflicts of interest involving government officials. These discussions are still at the policy stage, and no complete formal bill has been drafted.
GENIUS Act:
The GENIUS Act has been enacted and is scheduled to take effect on January 18, 2027. It will not automatically be invalidated by the midterm election results.
As a result, U.S. cryptocurrency regulation may follow two different paths: stablecoin regulation will proceed under existing laws and implementing rules, while the cryptocurrency market structure bill may be renegotiated in response to the changed political makeup of the new Congress.
2. Developments Following the Binance Security Incident
On 11/4, Binance released its seventh update on the recovery from the security incident, announcing the following key developments:
Approximately 98% of the affected assets have been replenished.
The remaining approximately 2% consists of less liquid tokens, which are still being purchased through market and OTC channels.
Binance stated that it had set aside more than 100% of the required compensation funds from its own resources.
A new Proof of Reserves (PoR) snapshot was completed at 00:00 UTC on 11/4.
The coverage of this PoR expanded from 10 tokens in the previous snapshot to 44 tokens.
The complete zero-knowledge proof is expected to take approximately 50–60 hours to complete.
Note that 98% refers to the replenishment rate of the affected assets; it does not mean that 98% of the hacker’s assets have been recovered. Also, while the new PoR snapshot has been completed, the complete zero-knowledge proof still requires processing time, so the two should not be treated as the same completed procedure.
3. THORChain Cross-Chain Swaps Paused and Resumed
At 11:34 UTC on 10/31, Ethereum experienced a one-block reorganization, causing THORChain to refund a 10 ETH deposit that had not actually made it onto the canonical chain, resulting in an extra payout of 10 ETH.
After the system’s automated solvency check detected a shortfall in treasury assets, ETH swaps were immediately paused. Node operators subsequently paused ETH signing and, through a node vote, paused swaps on other chains to avoid further asset risk.
The extra 10 ETH was later returned by the transaction sender, restoring the treasury’s solvency.
Following node software upgrades and security checks, THORChain gradually resumed swaps on most public chains starting on 11/3.
As of 11/4, most networks, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, had resumed operations, but BNB Smart Chain, Cosmos Hub, and Solana remained paused or in warning status. Not all cross-chain swaps had resumed.