Binance Covers 90% of Losses After $6.3 Billion Hack

Attackers drained about $6.3 billion from Binance's hot wallets in the largest crypto hack on record, an attack Chainalysis, Elliptic and TRM Labs linked to North Korean hackers. Binance's initial probe pointed to a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop and unauthorized access to a service container.

TRM Labs found the attacker staged at least 36 hours ahead, funding a wallet through Tornado Cash and testing malicious code on three wallets first. On Ethereum, it used EIP-7702 to turn a hot wallet into a sweeper, preparing 50 pre-signed authorizations, while coordinated transfers hit nine other chains.

TRM tied the theft to the group behind the $1.5 billion Bybit hack, now displaced atop the list of biggest crypto hacks. The attacker converted $325 million in stablecoins into $285 million in ETH to dodge freezes and borrowed 19,762 ETH on Aave against $59.9 million in stolen USDT.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the exchange has replenished 90% of stolen assets and readied $6.34 billion to cover losses, with an updated proof-of-reserves report due next. Immunefi's Simone Imbrescia noted the sweeper contract ran only about 130 lines, the hard part being access to signing infrastructure.

Polymarket Resumes Trading After $2.65 Million Third-Party Exploit

Polymarket placed its exchange in cancel-only mode and paused relayer actions after more than $2.6 million was lost within minutes, with Arkham showing a suspected attacker wallet holding about $2.65 million in POL. The funds arrived through multiple USDC.e-to-POL swaps via Relay before moving to other addresses.

The prediction market later said one of its third-party providers was compromised, fixed the cause, referred the case to law enforcement and pledged to fully reimburse affected traders. It follows an alleged governance attack on a Ukraine minerals deal market last year and suspicious outflows tied to its UMA adapter.

Strategy Posts $19.5 Billion Q3 Profit on Bitcoin Gains

Strategy reported $19.53 billion in net income for the third quarter, up from $2.79 billion a year earlier, as its bitcoin holdings produced a $20.91 billion gain. The firm, the largest corporate holder, held 848,517 BTC as of October 25, while software revenue slipped 3% to $125.4 million.

Strategy said STRC returned to health after $2.04 billion in repurchases, and preferred holders approved daily dividends with 99.3% of votes. CFO Andrew Kang will step down on November 5, with COO Reza Virasteh taking over in January, as Michael Saylor said the next bitcoin bull market is beginning.

Tether Reserve Buffer Nearly Doubles to $7.95 Billion

Tether booked $1.5 billion in operating profit in the third quarter, matching the prior quarter and lifting its 2026 total to $4.5 billion, according to an attestation by accounting firm BDO. Its reserve buffer nearly doubled to $7.95 billion from $4.1 billion at the end of June.

USDT issuance held broadly steady at $184 billion through the first three quarters, while total reserve assets reached $191.5 billion, including $132.4 billion in direct and indirect US Treasury bill holdings. CEO Paolo Ardoino said the excess reserves let Tether meet redemptions amid a chaotic geopolitical environment.

Data of the Day

Binance recorded $3.64 billion in net outflows in the first nine and a half hours after restoring withdrawals, processing $4.65 billion out against $1.01 billion in. The exchange put the net outflow at 2.1% of its $171 billion in assets under management, based on October 28 proof-of-reserves data.

DefiLlama showed $4.05 billion leaving over 24 hours while the next 10 largest exchanges drew about $368 million in net inflows, led by OKX at $316.8 million. Binance's bitcoin balance fell about 19,289 BTC, as withdrawals stayed suspended for 531 of 552 listed coins at last check.

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