Crypto Today: November 9, 2026

Each fact links to the outlet that reported it: check the original before relying on it. Not investment advice.

Crypto had a rough, regulation-heavy Monday: bitcoin slid to an 11-week low on liquidations and ETF outflows while Washington’s post-midterm shift put Binance, Tether and Trump-linked ventures in the crosshairs. Meanwhile, North Korean launderers were found using throwaway memecoins to move loot from the $6.3 billion Binance hack, and Coinbase and NYSE both made institutional-infrastructure advances.

The simple explanation

Hackers working for North Korea stole about $6.3 billion from the exchange Binance last month. Now a research firm says they are creating worthless joke coins, called memecoins, just to shuffle the stolen money around and make it harder to follow. The trail is still visible, just slower to trace.

Elsewhere, Democrats won Congress in last week’s elections, and one senator has demanded records from Binance, Tether (which issues a widely used dollar-linked coin) and Trump-linked crypto firms. Investors worry about tougher rules, and bitcoin fell to its lowest price since August before recovering a little. Meanwhile, Coinbase got a federal licence to hold crypto for big clients, and the New York Stock Exchange picked a blockchain to settle planned round-the-clock stock trading.

Markets snapshot

• BTC: $75,170.00 (+0.7% over 24 hours)
• ETH: $2,132.19 (+0.0% over 24 hours)
• SOL: $86.70 (+0.1% over 24 hours)

Prices as of Monday, November 9, 2026.

Security & Hacks

North Korean launderers mint memecoins to move loot from the $6.3B Binance hack

Elliptic says launderers tied to North Korea created six throwaway tokens on the NEAR blockchain to pass about $430,000 of stolen funds through, breaking the direct link between wallets. The money remains traceable, and far larger sums have not yet moved.

• On Oct. 29, about $6.3 billion was taken from Binance, a theft the FBI attributed to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group. (Unchained)
• A similar worthless Tron token appeared on Nov. 2, and on Nov. 3 stolen SOL went through existing thinly traded Solana tokens. (Unchained)
• From Nov. 5 to Nov. 7, roughly 117,000 NEAR (about $430,000) was routed through six new tokens: FUK, OLCCL, MEILI, MMLI, DABI and SINU. (CoinDesk, Unchained)
• Each token was paired with NEAR in its own liquidity pool; one group of wallets paid stolen NEAR in and another sold the token back for NEAR, so no transfer linked the two groups directly. (Unchained, Cointelegraph)
• Elliptic said the launderers’ wallets made every sell in all six tokens and every buy in five, and each token cost about 25 NEAR (roughly $90) to launch. (Unchained)
• None of the tokens has traded since Nov. 8, and four creators pulled the remaining funds from their pools that afternoon. (Unchained)
• About 11.8 million NEAR (around $43.7 million) from the hack has not moved yet, according to Elliptic. (Unchained)

Context: Elliptic is a blockchain analytics firm that tracks illicit flows. A liquidity pool is a pot of two assets on a decentralized exchange that anyone can swap against. Elliptic says it first saw the technique after Bybit lost $1.5 billion in 2025, when a worthless Tron token moved at least $24 million.

Why it matters: The tactic is cheap and could carry much larger amounts, giving investigators and compliance teams more to sift through. Elliptic advises treating funds leaving a liquidity pool as suspect by default, citing warning signs such as days-old tokens, pools with few traders and wallets that only buy or only sell.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The attribution to North Korea comes from the FBI and Elliptic’s analysis; Elliptic also stresses the technique slows tracing rather than hiding funds.

Watch next: Whether the roughly 11.8 million NEAR still unmoved starts flowing through similar tokens.

Institutions & ETFs

Coinbase wins full OCC national trust charter for institutional crypto custody

Coinbase said it has final approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to create Coinbase National Trust Company, putting its custody business under federal oversight. No launch timing or terms were disclosed.

• Coinbase said on Monday that the OCC signed off on Friday, upgrading its status from conditional to a full national trust charter. (Unchained, CoinDesk)
• Coinbase did not say when the trust company will begin operating, when custody accounts will move to it, or what terms apply. (Unchained)
• The company said the charter opens the door to expanded custody and could lay the foundation for future payment and stablecoin services, with no timeline given. (Unchained, Cointelegraph)
• It builds on a New York BitLicense from 2017 and a limited-purpose trust charter from 2018. (Unchained, Decrypt)
• Circle won final OCC approval for its trust bank in July, and Ripple received its approval last month. (Unchained, Decrypt)
• The Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC on Oct. 2, arguing it cannot grant trust charters to crypto firms that are not mainly fiduciaries. (Unchained)

Context: A national trust charter is narrower than a banking licence: a trust bank can hold customer assets and manage stablecoin reserves but cannot lend out deposits. The OCC is the US federal regulator of national banks.

Why it matters: Federal oversight may make large institutions more comfortable using Coinbase for custody, and it puts Coinbase alongside Circle and Ripple in the federal trust-bank group.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The OCC says its rule clarifies powers trust banks have long held; the ICBA disputes that. Coinbase’s statements are the main source on the approval’s significance.

Watch next: Any ruling in the ICBA lawsuit and Coinbase’s announcement of when the trust company starts operating.

NYSE picks Avalanche to settle its planned 24/7 tokenized stock market

Ava Labs said Avalanche will provide core ledger technology to the clearing firm of an NYSE-affiliated venue for tokenized securities. The venue is planned, subject to regulatory approval, with no launch date.

• Ava Labs announced Monday that the venue ‘will use Avalanche as its blockchain,’ serving the clearing firm, which was not named. (Unchained, Decrypt)
• The venue is an alternative trading system built by an NYSE affiliate, designed for 24/7 trading, clearing and settlement, subject to regulatory approval. (Unchained)
• NYSE’s Dennis Lee said the venue will support equities listed on a range of blockchains and that Avalanche meets its needs for speed, participant control, steady costs and developer base. (Unchained)
• NYSE, owned by Intercontinental Exchange, unveiled the platform in January with support for more than one chain, and signed a memorandum with Securitize in March. (Unchained)

Context: Tokenized stocks are traditional shares represented on a blockchain. Atomic settlement means the asset and payment change hands together in a single step. Ava Labs builds Avalanche.

Why it matters: It is a named blockchain choice by a major exchange group, though the platform supports other chains and is not yet approved or live.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The announcement comes from Ava Labs and NYSE; the clearing firm was not identified.

Watch next: Regulatory approval and a launch date for the venue.

Regulation & Policy

Post-midterm Congress targets Binance, Tether and Trump crypto ventures

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who is set to chair a Senate investigations panel when Democrats take over in January, gave Binance, Tether, World Liberty Financial and the $TRUMP memecoin firm until Jan. 4 to hand over records voluntarily. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is also tipped to lead the Banking Committee and has vowed scrutiny.

• Democrats won both chambers in the Nov. 3 midterms; the new Congress meets Jan. 3 unless a law sets another day. (Unchained)
• In letters dated Nov. 5, Blumenthal asked World Liberty Financial, Fight Fight Fight LLC, Binance and Tether to begin producing records by Nov. 30 and finish by Jan. 4, 2027, or face ‘alternative measures’. (Unchained, Cointelegraph)
• The Binance letter renews requests on alleged Iran-linked money laundering via two partners and alleged retaliation against compliance staff; Binance denied the allegations in March. (Unchained)
• The Tether letter renews requests about illicit use of its stablecoin tied to Iran and Russia, and about payments to Nxum, a consulting firm co-founded by Tether US CEO Bo Hines. (Unchained)
• Warren vowed scrutiny of prediction markets and Trump family crypto ventures if she chairs Senate Banking. (The Block)
• Trump said he knows ‘nothing’ about World Liberty’s UAE ties while confirming he co-owns it, as Justin Sun challenges filings in his lawsuit over frozen WLFI tokens. (CoinDesk)

Context: The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is a Senate panel whose chair can authorize subpoenas under its current rules. Blumenthal is its ranking member now and says the minority inquiry has run 18 months without responsive records. The letters do not use the word subpoena.

Why it matters: A Democratic majority gives these inquiries real compulsory power, and a crypto-friendly market structure law looks harder to pass, according to TD Cowen as cited by Bitcoin Magazine.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The inquiry’s claims about Binance and Tether are Blumenthal’s allegations; Binance has denied them.

Watch next: The Nov. 30 start date and Jan. 4 deadline for document production, and the PSI’s rules for the new Congress, which have not been adopted.

Markets

Bitcoin hits 11-week low as $1B+ in longs are liquidated and ETFs shed $1.3B

Bitcoin fell to $73,477 overnight, its lowest since August, as over $1 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out and spot ETFs saw their biggest weekly outflow since late June. It later recovered to about $74,700.

• US spot bitcoin ETFs lost about $1.28 billion last week, their second straight week of outflows, including $1.21 billion from BlackRock’s IBIT. (Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine)
• Overnight, bitcoin dropped over 2% to $73,477 before bouncing above $75,000. (Bitcoin Magazine)
• More than $1 billion of leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in 24 hours, about $913 million of them longs. (Bitcoin Magazine, The Block)
• Bitcoin closed below its 50-week moving average. (The Block)
• Triggers cited include an internal Nvidia investigation, stalled US-Iran talks, and fears of tougher oversight under a Democratic Congress. (Bitcoin Magazine, CoinDesk)
• Options traders are bracing for more movement: one-week implied volatility rose to about 43% from about 33% on Thursday. (Bitcoin Magazine)

Context: A liquidation happens when an exchange force-closes a leveraged bet that has lost too much. Nvidia is seen as the bellwether of the AI trade that has supported risk assets this year. Bitcoin was near $74,700 at the time of writing.

Why it matters: Bitcoin did not join Friday’s equity rebound, and ETF redemptions suggest institutional demand is cooling.

Watch next: October consumer price data on Tuesday; futures imply roughly an 80% chance of a Fed hike on Dec. 8-9. Analysts cite support near $73,150 and resistance near $77,430.

Quick hits

• Chainalysis restored its KYT and Address Screening tools after a breach exposed customer login data, but customers must reset credentials before registering transactions. (CryptoSlate)
• An Anza developer filed a Solana proposal (SIMD-0723) to retire durable nonces, with activation not before May 5, 2027; it remains a draft with no approvals. (Unchained)
• Aave’s roughly $120M tBTC reserve stays frozen while Threshold’s bridge only partly resumed, after it halted Oct. 30 over a critical Linux kernel vulnerability. (Cointelegraph)
• Formation Securities plans an early-2027 Solana tokenized stock venue under an SEC framework, listing Galaxy, Exodus and Forward Industries shares. (CoinDesk)
• Former Ethereum Foundation Protocol Support head Kayleen Fulton sued the foundation, Vitalik Buterin and others on Nov. 4, alleging disability discrimination and retaliation; the foundation’s counsel denied unlawful conduct in a May letter. (Unchained)
• Vitalik Buterin backs keeping EIP-1559 but argues ETH should focus on store-of-value rather than maximizing fee burns, saying higher fees could price out users. (The Defiant)