Author: James Wilson

In this week’s edition of the weekly recap, Binance has reported a $6.3 billion breach, the Federal Reserve has held interest rates steady, and the CFTC has advanced plans for voluntary crypto exchange registration. Summary Binance pledged to cover customer losses after reporting a $6.3 billion security breach. The Fed held rates at 3.75%–4.00%, with two officials voting for another hike. The CFTC continued developing voluntary exchange registration while Congress’s market-structure legislation remained unfinished. Coinbase reported $719 million in quarterly profit, largely supported by unrealized cryptocurrency investment gains. Tether posted $1.5 billion in quarterly operating profit and nearly $8 billion…

NFT sales have fallen 35.37% to $42.13 million over the past seven days, while trading activity has picked up and Ethereum has returned to first place among blockchains. Summary Weekly NFT sales totaled $42.13 million, despite more participating wallets and a higher transaction count. Buyer addresses rose 44.10% to 216,012, while transactions climbed 30.54% to 935,198. Ethereum led blockchain sales with $13.17 million, although its weekly volume fell 17.53%. Bitcoin sales dropped 79.89% to $6.27 million, placing the network behind Ethereum and Polygon. Courtyard topped collections with $8.58 million, while a $2.82 million Bitcoin transaction led individual sales. According to…

Binance has set aside more than $6.34 billion to cover its $6.3 billion security breach and outlined plans to begin restoring withdrawals within approximately 34 hours, subject to security checks. Summary Binance says $5 billion is already held in the same cryptocurrencies stolen during the attack. Withdrawals will reopen in phases after security checks, while deposits and unaffected services remain operational. Proof of Reserves results are scheduled for Nov. 2, following an initial asset snapshot. Investigators have identified additional breach points, with no evidence so far of leaked wallet private keys. Binance’s second recovery update, dated Oct. 30 and signed…

North Korea-linked hackers have accounted for nearly 89% of reported cryptocurrency hack losses in 2026, according to Chainalysis, as Pyongyang has dismissed international sanctions targeting its revenue and weapons programs. Summary Suspected North Korea-linked attacks account for nearly 89% of reported crypto hack losses this year. Average losses per suspected DPRK-linked hack reached $185.65 million, compared with $50.65 million in 2021. Investigators linked Binance’s stolen funds to assets taken in September’s North Korea-attributed Bitget attack. Pyongyang rejected a multinational sanctions statement addressing overseas workers, cyber activities and military cooperation. Chainalysis published the figures on Oct. 30, drawing on reported losses…

Bitcoin’s whitepaper turned 18 on Oct. 31, bringing fresh attention to Satoshi Nakamoto’s proposal for payments without trusted intermediaries days after Binance reported a $6.3 billion theft. Summary Satoshi published the Bitcoin whitepaper on Oct. 31, 2008, through the cryptography mailing list. The nine-page document proposed preventing double-spending without relying on a bank or central mint. Binance has pledged to cover losses after attackers drained billions from its cryptocurrency wallets. Self-custody advocates and US investor guidance describe different responsibilities for safeguarding private keys. Satoshi Nakamoto’s original announcement, preserved in the mailing-list archive, described an electronic cash system that would let…

Recall Foundation has announced plans to wind down and burn 358.6 million RECALL tokens, with no treasury payouts or buybacks for holders. Summary Recall plans to burn 35.86% of RECALL’s supply, including locked treasury and ecosystem reserves. Creditors and vendors are allocated $3.45 million from the Foundation’s estimated $3.7 million treasury. Staked tokens remain outside the burn, but holders must initiate their own withdrawals. The app becomes read-only on Nov. 30, with later withdrawals available through the staking contract. Recall Foundation said in its Oct. 30 announcement that its board had reviewed adoption, operating costs, and growth projections before deciding…

Iron Fish has announced an end to all remaining network support after uncovering an inflation bug dating back to early 2019 that allowed an attacker to spend the same shielded funds repeatedly and exit through the ChainPort bridge. Summary Iron Fish traced the exploit to its Merkle tree implementation and a flaw involving note nullifiers. The attacker repeatedly spent the same notes before aggregating funds and moving them through ChainPort. Internal and external audits covered the affected code path but failed to identify the vulnerability. The team said it committed a patch and included a postmortem before archiving its repository.…

A Halloween attack has targeted at least 12 DeFi websites, with Blockaid identifying the Step Drainer toolkit across affected pages and teams warning users against connecting wallets or signing transactions. Summary Blockaid identified Flap, Kintsu, and 10 more websites in alerts about the frontend attack. Flap confirmed a DNS hijack that redirected its official domain to an unauthorized website. StonkFun restored its website after moving infrastructure and said it was unaware of affected users. The alerts identify compromised websites, while the number of victims and any losses remain unestablished. Blockaid’s initial warning named Flap and Kintsu as targets of a…

A Binance-linked attacker borrowed from Aave before emergency controls took effect. The response stopped new deposits as lenders withdrew, pushed up borrowing costs and reopened a debate over how much disruption emergency safeguards should impose on other users. Summary A wallet linked to the Binance attacker deposited 60 million USDT into Aave and borrowed 19,762 WETH, worth approximately $44.6 million, before emergency restrictions took effect. Aave’s guardians froze new deposits and borrowing across 175 V3 reserves and 117 V4 reserves, while withdrawals, repayments and liquidations remained available. Aave announced on October 30 that all V3 and V4 markets had reopened,…

Pi Network has released four updates covering app development, token tracking, AI-assisted software packaging, and identity verification ahead of its Nov. 17–19 Ecosystem Summit. Summary Developers can manage app settings through a redesigned portal with a dedicated configuration section. Pi BlockExplorer now displays historical prices for Launchpad Testnet tokens, including SLICE against Test-Pi. SoloHost’s new AI skill helps developers prepare existing applications for distribution through Pi Desktop. PiVerify has added face uniqueness and further liveness checks for businesses using its identity services. Pi Network’s Oct. 29 announcement describes changes for developers building Pi applications, software publishers using SoloHost and businesses…