Wire archive

Former Senate Banking Committee chair Sherrod Brown beat Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio, two years after a crypto-funded campaign helped push him out. Politico put industry spending on this year's race above $55 million, while Reuters counted more than $68 million before the vote. With Democrats now holding the Senate, Elizabeth Warren rather than Brown is expected to lead the Banking Committee. Source: American Banker

The Liquid Federation said on Tuesday that its bitcoin reserves again cover all LBTC one-to-one, closing a gap left by a Sept. 6 exploit that drained about 4,000 BTC. The attacker returned roughly 3,400 BTC a day later; the last 550 BTC arrived in two deposits on Monday, which a Federation board member attributed to Blockstream. The Federation says governance and security changes will follow in the coming weeks. Source: The Block

Binance's SAFU emergency fund now holds about 7,500 BTC, roughly half of the 15,000 BTC it held after converting from stablecoins in February, after four withdrawals on Oct. 31 to help cover the $6.3 billion theft. At around $77,000 per coin, the remainder is worth about $580 million. Binance says it will rebuild the fund to about $1 billion but has given no timetable. Source: Bloomingbit, citing CoinDesk

Binance's 24-hour net outflows have dropped to roughly $3.29 billion, less than half the peak of about $7 billion, according to DeFiLlama data. The exchange plans to restore withdrawals for more networks and assets on Nov. 3 but has not named them or given a start time. The first phase on Nov. 1 covered 15 networks. Source: The Block

Binance said the zero-knowledge proof for its Oct. 31 reserve snapshot is ready a day ahead of its Nov. 3 target, letting users check that 10 assets, including BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC and XRP, are backed at least one-to-one. The exchange says it has replaced about 95% of the stolen funds from its own money; the rest sits in thinner tokens outside those 10. A broader snapshot follows on Nov. 4, with its proof expected to take another 40 to 50 hours. Source: The Block

Bitcoin miner turned data center developer Cipher Digital reported third-quarter revenue of $26.7 million, down from $71.7 million a year earlier and about $11 million short of analyst estimates. Mining brought in $20.8 million and its first high-performance computing lease added $5.9 million; a $127.2 million warrant revaluation turned the quarter into a $31.6 million net profit. The company also extended its Barber Lake lease with an AI lab to 20 years, lifting contracted revenue at the site to about $9.1 billion. Source: GlobeNewswire

Circle said it has frozen more than $1.1 billion in USDC connected to last week's Binance theft, up from the roughly $823 million it locked in the attacker's wallet within minutes of the hack. The company has not explained the gap between the two figures. Bitcoin and ether, which no issuer can freeze, make up an estimated $2.4 billion of the stolen funds, according to TRM Labs. Source: American Banker

After Tether froze 378.7 million USDT, the attackers still had about $249 million to work with on Tron, and roughly $242 million of it moved out through Relay, THORChain, Chainflip and other services within two days, according to on-chain analyst SomaXBT. Elliptic estimates about $3.3 billion of the loot sits in assets no issuer can freeze, including 18,270 BTC that has not left the 19 bitcoin addresses named by the FBI. Source: The Block

Bitcoin traded around $78,000 on Sunday, a small gain on the day, after dipping toward a six-week low near $76,100 in the selling that followed the Binance hack. Ether was near $2,270. The Oct. 30 sell-off had triggered more than $1.5 billion in liquidations. Source: crypto.news

A Binance proof-of-reserves snapshot taken at 00:00 UTC on Oct. 31 shows customer balances in BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC fully covered, the exchange said. A complete zero-knowledge proof is now expected by Tuesday, Nov. 3, a day later than the Nov. 2 date given earlier. Binance has also promised a detailed incident report once its investigation ends. Source: crypto.news

TRM Labs said on-chain data from Binance's hot wallets cannot be tied to individual users or countries, leaving Singapore's exposure to the $6.3 billion theft unknown, The Straits Times reported. Binance.com has remained on the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Investor Alert List since 2021, when the regulator ordered it to stop soliciting Singapore residents. Source: The Straits Times via The Star

Coinbase said it had changed the systems it uses to hold crypto keys offline, describing the move as purely precautionary after the theft at Binance. Kraken said it was studying the incident for lessons for its own defenses, and OKX chief executive Star Xu called for a real-time alert system so exchanges can share attack data and freeze suspected stolen funds quickly. Source: Reuters via The Business Standard

Coinbase carried out a one-time conversion on Oct. 30 of 14 stablecoins that lack MiCA authorization, among them USDT, PYUSD, USD1 and DAI, swapping remaining EEA retail balances into USDC or another supported asset at market rates. Tokens sent to Coinbase after the cutoff will not be credited; the exchange noted that MiCA's transition period for issuers ended July 1 without extension. Source: Unchained

Bithumb designated RECALL as a caution-flagged asset. Unresolved caution flags can lead to delisting in Korea. Exchange notice

OKX founder Star Xu called on exchange chiefs to agree common security standards, arguing safety should not be a field for competition. His proposals include real-time settlement between verified exchanges, added checks and delays for large withdrawals to unknown addresses or smart-contract approvals enforced at the signing layer, and joint incident alerts and asset freezes. Source: CoinDesk

Coinbase reported third-quarter net income of $719 million, almost all of it from a $715 million gain on crypto it holds, while revenue of about $1.22 billion was flat on the quarter and down 35% from a year earlier. Prediction markets passed $200 million in annualized revenue, and CEO Brian Armstrong said the CFTC has cleared Coinbase to list its own event contracts. Source: The Block

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in a net $17.2 million on Thursday, a fourth straight day of inflows but far below Wednesday's $137 million, as the Binance hack hit prices. Ether funds lost $105.5 million, led by $71.7 million out of BlackRock's ETHA, and Solana products shed $27.7 million, according to Farside data. Source: FinanceFeeds

Aave paused new deposits and borrowing across every DAO-operated V3 and V4 market, while still letting users withdraw and repay, after a wallet linked to the Binance attack posted stolen USDT as collateral and borrowed roughly 20,000 ETH. Aave said its contracts were not affected and positions remain overcollateralized. Source: Cointelegraph

Euronext suspended trading in the CoinShares Zcash ETP (ZCSH) in Paris on Oct. 28, citing settlement requirements that the central securities depository cannot yet fully support. The product would have been Europe's fourth Zcash ETP after earlier listings by 21Shares, Virtune and Valor. Source: Cointelegraph

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs took in about $176 million on Oct. 27, led by roughly $151 million into BlackRock's IBIT, after $110 million the session before, for a two-day total near $286 million. Spot ether ETFs lost about $149 million over the same two days. Source: Bitcoin.com News

Ripple used its Swell event on Oct. 27 to announce that Robinhood will bring the RLUSD stablecoin to its retail app later this year, use it on the XRP Ledger for institutional settlement and adopt Ripple Treasury for cash management. BNY's digital asset custody platform now holds XRP and RLUSD, and the two plan to let bank clients mint and redeem the token directly. RLUSD's market value is about $2.57 billion. Source: Cointelegraph

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Ripple's Swell conference in New York on Oct. 27 that Congress's failure to pass the CLARITY Act was a disappointment, but that Treasury can push crypto oversight forward with the SEC and CFTC through agency action. He grouped digital assets with AI and chips in the technology race with China and noted that more than 90% of stablecoins are tied to the dollar and often backed by Treasuries. Rules made by agencies would not carry the durability of a statute. Source: CoinDesk

Robinhood said Oct. 27 that third-quarter revenue rose 12% from a year earlier to a record $1.42 billion. Event contracts brought in $173 million, more than six times last year's level, while crypto revenue dropped 55% to $120 million. Customers traded a record 16.4 billion event contracts in the period. Source: Stock Titan

Belgian hardware wallet maker NGRAVE said it is facing a high-level cyber threat and told users to watch for phishing by text, email, fake websites and bogus support staff, adding it never asks for recovery phrases. The warning follows an Oct. 17 incident in which attackers hijacked a third-party push service for its LIQUID app and drained at least $2.56 million from about 70 wallets. Source: ChainCatcher

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is reviewing whether Polymarket kept U.S. users off its offshore market as its 2022 settlement required, Reuters reported Oct. 27, citing two people familiar with the matter. Investigators are said to be looking at how the platform located users, its U.S. marketing and onboarding on its newer U.S. venue. Earlier CFTC and Justice Department probes closed in July 2025 without charges, and all parties declined to comment. Source: Unchained

Ethereum's consensus specifications now include a fix, merged Oct. 26, for a Glamsterdam flaw that could have credited a pending validator deposit to a block builder registered under the same key. The change, proposed by a Lido engineer, sorts deposits by withdrawal credentials; it had been shelved on Oct. 19 before being reopened. No mainnet date is set, and client teams still have to implement and test the new rule. Source: Unchained

Coinbase will convert 14 stablecoins that lack MiCA authorization, including Tether's USDT, PayPal's PYUSD and World Liberty Financial's USD1, for retail customers in the European Economic Area once an Oct. 30 deadline passes. Remaining balances will generally be switched into USDC, and trading in the affected tokens is already blocked. The move comes ahead of the Jan. 8, 2027 outer limit set by an Oct. 8 ESMA opinion. Source: CryptoSlate

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of about $110.3 million on Oct. 26, ending two straight sessions of outflows. BlackRock's IBIT was the only fund with new money, while the other products reported flat flows. Spot ether ETFs went the other way, losing roughly $88.6 million on the day. Source: TokenPost

CHAINBRIEF is the media partner of Oriel Foundation (formerly First Brick Foundation), a foundation in formation that plans to support families and children in need, in Korea and abroad, starting with learning support and growing toward classrooms and schools. The foundation says it will record every gift and payout on a public blockchain once it is registered, and is not taking donations yet. CHAINBRIEF will report its progress. Source: Oriel Foundation

The CFTC's innovation task force will host its first Frontier Forum on Wednesday, focused on how artificial intelligence could reshape U.S. derivatives markets and their oversight. Participants include crypto firms Chainlink, Hedera and Tempo, trading-technology companies such as OneChronos, and the Investment Company Institute. Topics include AI agents that use blockchains and stablecoins to trade without human input, and whether current rules cover them. Source: Bloomingbit

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission on Monday approved the first tokenized funds offered to the public for secondary trading on a licensed virtual asset platform. Two ChinaAMC (Hong Kong) money market funds, one in Hong Kong dollars and one in U.S. dollars, can now be bought and sold around the clock on Futu-owned Cheetah Trade, with primary subscriptions and redemptions as a backstop. The SFC said it will monitor trading closely before considering a wider range of products. Source: RTHK

Exchange MEXC says in an updated country restrictions guide that it is not authorized to provide crypto-asset services under the EU's MiCA rules, as it finishes closing accounts for users in the Netherlands. The guide gives Nov. 16 as the final offboarding date, later than the Oct. 31 completion date in an earlier notice, and MEXC has also said it will stop serving users in Russia and Belarus. Source: crypto.news

Strategy reported no bitcoin acquisitions for the Oct. 19–25 period in its Monday filing, leaving its holdings unchanged at 848,517 BTC. The pause follows a 267 BTC purchase the prior week, funded mostly through share sales, alongside a $193.1 million buyback of its STRC preferred stock. The company reports quarterly results on Oct. 29. Source: The Crypto Times

Bithumb designated INIT as a caution-flagged asset. Unresolved caution flags can lead to delisting in Korea. Exchange notice

Hyperliquid plans to open 11 USDC-priced spot markets for EQX Labs tokens tracking the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100 and shares such as Nvidia, Tesla and Apple at 9:30 a.m. ET on Oct. 26. EQX says each token is backed one-to-one by shares but is legally a limited-recourse debt instrument from a British Virgin Islands segregated portfolio company, conveys no direct stock ownership and is closed to U.S. persons. Source: TokenPost

ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone said the digital euro pilot, using real transactions by ECB and national central bank staff, remains on track for 2027, with 36 market operators helping to prepare it. In an interview published by the ECB on Oct. 24, he framed the project as a way to cut Europe's reliance on non-European payment providers and said he hopes EU lawmakers adopt the legislation by the end of 2026, which could allow issuance as early as 2029. Source: Cointelegraph

Hardware wallet maker Keystone said a third party obtained customer names, contact details, shipping addresses and order information through its Shopify-based online store. The company said private keys, recovery phrases and payment details were not exposed, and it warned users about scammers posing as Keystone. It detected the access on Oct. 20 and disclosed it publicly on Oct. 24, but has not said how many customers were affected. Source: The Block

The Monetary Authority of Singapore said Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have joined BLOOM, its initiative for cross-border settlement using tokenized bank deposits and regulated stablecoins, as policymaker members. Visa, Mastercard, Ripple, Nium, Airwallex and Maybank are among the new industry participants, and the World Bank Group also signed on. The announcement did not name a specific token, payment corridor or launch date. Source: The Block

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority opened consultation CP26/38 on Oct. 23, proposing to add crypto examples to its Financial Crime Guide covering due diligence, transaction monitoring, blockchain analytics and Travel Rule practice. The draft discourages fixed tracing cutoffs that are not tied to a firm's own risk assessment and expects firms to be able to explain scores from third-party monitoring tools. The guide sets supervisory expectations rather than new rules, and comments close Dec. 24. Source: TokenPost

Franklin Templeton filed to register two index ETFs on Nasdaq that channel stock dividends into bitcoin exposure, with a prospectus naming Oct. 27 as the effective date. The U.S. Equity Bitcoin DRIP fund (FBEQ, 0.09% fee) and a U.S. Innovation version start at about 95% stocks and 5% bitcoin, gained through exchange-traded products or derivatives, not coins held directly, and trim the bitcoin share at quarterly rebalances. Franklin has not yet announced a first trading date. Source: Yahoo Finance