This Week in Crypto: Oct 24 – Oct 31, 2026

Written with AI from public reporting. Each fact links to the outlet that reported it: check the original before relying on it. Not investment advice.

A theft of about $6.3 billion from Binance, the largest crypto exchange and now the victim of the largest crypto hack on record, dominated the week. Other security failures showed how often the weak point is the infrastructure around a platform or wallet, including a third-party provider at Polymarket, a stolen authenticity key at wallet maker Keystone and a tampered chat widget on trading sites. Meanwhile, traditional finance and US regulators moved further into crypto, with ICE backing a planned US Hyperliquid venture, Ripple winning a federal trust charter and the CFTC suing Utah as the state pursued felony charges against Kalshi. Markets fell against a hawkish Federal Reserve backdrop, with Bitcoin at $77,215 (down 4.5% over seven days), Ethereum at $2,240.69 (down 5.9%) and Solana at $95.88 (down 6.6%) as of October 31.

Markets snapshot

• BTC: $77,215.00 (-4.5% over 7 days)
• ETH: $2,240.69 (-5.9% over 7 days)
• SOL: $95.88 (-6.6% over 7 days)

Prices as of Saturday, October 31, 2026.

Security & Hacks

Binance loses about $6.3 billion in largest crypto hack on record

Attackers drained about $6.3 billion from Binance hot wallets in a hack that investigators link to North Korea. Binance has pledged to cover all losses, and about $3 billion has been frozen.

• An address funded through the Tornado Cash mixer submitted an EIP-7702 delegation for a Binance hot wallet; about three minutes later, at 20:24 UTC, that wallet sent 167,464 ETH and 63 tokens, including 1.615 billion USDT, to a new address. (Decrypt)
• Early tallies found at least $5.57 billion gone across three blockchains: $3.51 billion on Ethereum, $1.44 billion in Bitcoin (18,270 BTC) and $630 million on Tron. Binance initially said only that it was investigating and had not confirmed any impact on user funds. (Decrypt)
• Tether froze 975.1 million USDT and Circle froze 823 million USDC at the main receiving address, about $1.8 billion in total, while the attacker continued moving funds. (Decrypt, The Block)
• Bitcoin slipped below $79,000 and Binance’s BNB token fell about 7% to roughly $699, while privacy coin Monero rose about 6% to $637. (Decrypt)
• Reporting later put the loss at $6.3 billion, with Binance pledging to cover all of it and about $3 billion frozen by the exchange and its partners. (Cointelegraph)
• The Block reported that investigators tie the attack to North Korea and that it involved a compromise of Binance’s hot-wallet signing infrastructure. (The Block)

Context: Hot wallets are the internet-connected wallets exchanges use to process withdrawals. EIP-7702 is an Ethereum feature that lets an ordinary wallet run delegated smart-contract code, which can then authorize later transfers. Stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle can block specific addresses, which is why part of the loot could be frozen quickly.

Why it matters: The pledge to cover losses, if honoured, shifts the immediate damage from customers to Binance, but the scale of the theft raises questions about security at the industry’s largest venue. The freezes also show that centralized stablecoin issuers can recover value in a way that is not possible with assets such as Bitcoin or ETH.

Disputed or unconfirmed: Loss figures rose as reporting developed, from $5.57 billion to as much as $5.8 billion and then $6.3 billion. Frozen totals also differ, at about $1.8 billion for Tether and Circle alone versus about $3 billion including Binance and other partners. Decrypt’s early report said it was unknown how the attacker obtained the required signature; The Block’s later account cites a compromise of signing infrastructure. The North Korea attribution comes from investigators cited by The Block.

Watch next: Whether Binance publishes a full account of the breach and completes its promised reimbursement, and how much of the frozen money is recovered.

Polymarket pauses, then resumes trading after third-party breach drains about $2.65 million

Polymarket users lost about $2.65 million after one of the prediction market’s third-party providers was compromised. Trading has resumed and Polymarket says those affected will be fully repaid.

• On October 29, users reported unauthorized withdrawals, and Polymarket’s exchange went into cancel-only mode, with new orders and relayer actions paused. (Decrypt, The Block)
• Polymarket said a third-party provider had been compromised, that it had referred the matter to law enforcement and that affected users would be made whole. (CoinDesk, Decrypt)
• Arkham data showed a wallet identified as the suspected attacker’s holding about $2.65 million in POL, Polygon’s native token, after swaps from a bridged version of USDC. (Decrypt)
• Hudson Rock researchers said a script loaded from web monitoring service DebugBear looked for logged-in trading sessions, tried to sell positions and transfer the assets, and listed the same wallet as its fallback recipient. (Decrypt)
• Trading came back online, and analytics firm Bubblemaps traced about $2.7 million in outflows; a trader cited in that tracing said he had moved his funds to safety. (The Block, The Defiant)

Context: Polymarket is a large prediction market where users trade on the outcomes of events. In May, a private key compromise cost it roughly $700,000 from an internal wallet. In June, a compromised vendor let hackers inject malicious code into its site and steal about $3 million from fewer than 15 accounts.

Why it matters: This is the second reported vendor-related theft at Polymarket in about four months, which suggests that outside code remains a recurring risk for its users. The reimbursement pledge limits user losses but does not address that exposure.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The DebugBear explanation comes from Hudson Rock, which said it had not established how the compromise began or how many users were hit; in Decrypt’s report, Polymarket had not given a cause beyond naming an unnamed provider. Reported losses vary slightly, from $2.65 million to $2.7 million.

Watch next: Whether Polymarket publishes a full root-cause report and how many users it confirms were affected.

Keystone will destroy 18,835 hardware wallets after attacker steals device-authenticity key

A breach at wallet maker Keystone exposed customer data and the key used to verify that its devices are genuine, forcing it to scrap its unshipped stock. Keystone says recovery phrases and private keys were not involved, but buyers now face phishing risk and, for some recent devices, doubts about authenticity.

• Keystone said it detected the intrusion on October 20 and confirmed on October 23 that data had been taken; it disclosed the breach publicly on October 24, about 18 hours after a customer reported a social-engineering call that used Keystone order details. (Unchained, Protos)
• On October 26, Keystone said the attacker also obtained the WebAuth key burned into devices during manufacturing, which could allow counterfeits to pass its verification check. (Unchained, Protos)
• It will destroy 18,835 devices, switch production to a new key, freeze unsent website orders and sell new units only as preorders until new-key devices are built. (Unchained)
• Keystone said devices delivered before October 20 can be trusted if they pass authentication, but it cannot fully rule out counterfeits among old-key devices received later, and it asked those owners to contact support. (Unchained)
• The intrusion touched 51,083 Shopify buyer records, of which 25,964 from 2024 to 2026 still held names, contact details, addresses and order information; another 12,873 unpaid checkout records also held personal details. (Unchained)
• Keystone admitted that its bulk-erasure tool had failed and that some data was kept past its 180-day limit; customers had already questioned its deletion promises on X. (Unchained, The Block)
• Rival wallet maker Foundation separately said compromised Cloudflare API keys let phishing emails go out from its official domain, with over 20,000 attempts delivered and the extent of any data exposure still being determined. (Protos)

Context: Hardware wallets keep the keys that control crypto offline and are often seen as the safest way to self-custody. Protos reports that the sector has had a bad run, with Ledger’s spyware scandal and a Coldcard seed-generation bug together causing over $200 million in losses. Leaks have also hit Ledger, Trezor and SafePal.

Why it matters: Leaked names and home addresses let scammers target known crypto owners long after a breach is fixed. A stolen authenticity key also weakens the check buyers rely on to confirm that a device is genuine.

Disputed or unconfirmed: Keystone’s published policies describe deletion differently: automatic after 180 days in some places, by customer request in another, and triggered by 180 days without an order in its 2021 privacy policy. Its statement that the key plays no role in generating or signing with private keys comes from the company itself.

Watch next: November 3, when Keystone says its overdue data-erasure requests should be complete; its promised detailed breach report is also pending.

Bitcoin Core discloses AI-found bugs as Electrum and Udesk attacks target crypto users

Bitcoin Core patched three flaws found by an automated AI scan and disclosed them immediately rather than waiting under its usual embargo. Separately, malicious Electrum servers stole Bitcoin from at least one user and a tampered chat script swapped deposit addresses on three trading sites.

• On October 18, an Electrum user reported losing funds after a dishonest server displayed a forged transaction and baited a fee increase; on October 24, developers published a high-severity advisory and released fixed version 4.8.3. (Unchained)
• On October 22, Bitcoin Core added a policy exception for bugs easily discoverable with simple AI prompts, allowing faster disclosure instead of the usual delay of about a year for Medium-rated flaws. (Unchained)
• On October 27, SlowMist said tampered JavaScript tied to the Udesk chat widget collected login data from visitors and replaced deposit addresses on MGBX, Biking Exchange and BitxEX. (Unchained)
• On October 28, Bitcoin Core published three advisories, with fixes in versions 29.5, 30.4, 31.2 and 32.1; the bugs were found by the Project Loupe scanner led by Elias Rohrer at Spiral. (Unchained, The Defiant)
• The bugs included a remote crash of Windows, macOS and BSD nodes, a memory-growth flaw and a low-severity miner attack on undo files; the last fix does not cover 32-bit systems or nodes storing block data on FAT32. (Unchained, The Defiant)

Context: Bitcoin Core is the main software used to run the Bitcoin network. Electrum is a popular Bitcoin wallet that relies on servers for information about unconfirmed transactions, and users who connect only to servers they trust are not affected by this flaw. Loupe was launched in May by Spiral and Block as a free scanner for open-source Bitcoin projects.

Why it matters: AI scanning is already changing how core Bitcoin software handles security disclosure, because a bug that is easy to find may no longer stay private for long. The Electrum and Udesk cases also show that the addresses and transactions displayed to users can be manipulated, so they need checking against trusted sources.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The advisories do not say whether the Core bugs were exploited or which AI model was used; the 32.1 release notes credit Anthropic Security among contributors without describing its work. The Udesk account rests on SlowMist, which did not say how the code entered the script, how many sites loaded it or whether funds were lost. Electrum did not disclose how much was stolen.

Watch next: Bitcoin Core says it will disclose three more medium- and high-severity vulnerabilities, fixed in version 30.0, about two weeks after its October 27 release notes.

Regulation & Policy

Utah files felony charges against Kalshi and its co-founders as the CFTC sues the state

Utah escalated from a civil suit to criminal charges against Kalshi and its two co-founders, while the federal derivatives regulator sued to stop the state’s enforcement. The case adds to a growing state-federal conflict that appears headed for the Supreme Court.

• On October 20, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown sued Kalshi in state court, alleging that it lets residents bet illegally on sports, elections and politics. (Unchained)
• On October 26, the CFTC filed a federal complaint against Utah and Brown, announced the next day, arguing that federal commodities law overrides state gambling laws for event contracts on registered exchanges. Utah is the tenth state it has taken legal action against. (Unchained, The Block)
• Utah’s criminal charges, reported on October 28, name KalshiEX, CEO Tarek Mansour and COO Luana Lopes Lara, with one second-degree felony count, 12 third-degree felony counts and one misdemeanor count. (Decrypt, The Block)
• Prosecutors say a state agent used an undercover account in Utah to place 12 sports wagers in September, passing a location check, with Kalshi earning fees on each bet. (Decrypt)
• Kalshi called the charges a crazy overreach and said Utah was playing politics, while Brown argued that federal registration does not place a company above state law. (Decrypt)

Context: Kalshi is a CFTC-registered prediction market. In August, US District Judge Robert Shelby ruled that federal law does not displace Utah’s gambling ban, and on September 8 the Tenth Circuit refused to pause enforcement during Kalshi’s appeal. Federal appeals courts are split: the Third Circuit sided with Kalshi’s position in New Jersey, while the Sixth and Ninth sided with Ohio, Tennessee and Nevada. New Jersey, backed by 39 other states and the District of Columbia, has asked the Supreme Court to decide.

Why it matters: Felony charges carrying possible jail time raise the personal stakes for prediction-market executives. The outcome affects whether these platforms can operate under one federal regime or must contend with state-by-state gambling law, a question that also matters to Polymarket and Coinbase.

Disputed or unconfirmed: Utah and the CFTC directly disagree on whether federal law preempts state gambling law, and courts have split. According to the CFTC’s complaint, courts have granted preliminary injunctions in its favor in Arizona, Illinois and Minnesota, while Utah’s federal court has so far ruled against Kalshi. The allegations against Kalshi and its founders are unproven charges.

Watch next: A federal judge’s decision on the CFTC’s request for a preliminary order against Utah, and whether the Supreme Court takes New Jersey’s case.

HTX exits the UK in an FCA settlement as US sanctions North Korean IT-worker launderers

HTX agreed to stop unlawful crypto promotion in the UK and has left the market, without admitting wrongdoing. The US separately sanctioned 10 people and one entity over North Korean IT-worker schemes that move money through crypto.

• On October 28, the US Treasury sanctioned 10 individuals and one entity over North Korean government-run IT-worker schemes that it says fund weapons programs. (Decrypt, Bitcoin Magazine)
• Those named include Russian nationals Vitold Obertas, accused of nearly $2 million in crypto conversions, and Ilya Boykov, accused of converting the equivalent of $3.5 million in crypto; Treasury listed Ethereum and Tron addresses for both. (Decrypt, Bitcoin Magazine)
• Treasury also sanctioned the Vladivostok-based First Financial and Technical Development Center and North Korean delegation leaders including Kim Ki Hyok, who it says moved nearly $500,000 in crypto. (Decrypt, Bitcoin Magazine)
• On October 29, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority said it had secured High Court undertakings that HTX, formerly Huobi, will not knowingly promote crypto services unlawfully to UK consumers. (Decrypt, Protos)
• The FCA said UK consumers can no longer deposit and new users cannot sign up, while HTX’s website gives existing UK customers 48 hours to withdraw before accounts close. (Decrypt, Protos)

Context: The FCA sued HTX in October 2025, its first enforcement case against a crypto firm under the UK’s financial promotion rules. The UK sanctioned Huobi Global S.A. in May over alleged support for Russia’s financial sector, and the EU named it in July. Treasury’s latest action follows a March designation of a separate North Korean IT-worker network, which Treasury said laundered roughly $800 million in crypto.

Why it matters: The FCA is showing that offshore exchanges serving UK consumers can face court action. The Treasury action targets the people converting North Korea’s crypto earnings, and published wallet addresses give exchanges specific accounts to watch.

Disputed or unconfirmed: HTX told the Financial Times it proactively aligned with UK rules, while the FCA said it repeatedly failed to engage and took steps to leave after proceedings began; the settlement terms are confidential and include no admission of liability. HTX says Huobi Global S.A. is distinct from the exchange, but Protos found court filings in which that company described itself as owning and operating HTX. Bitcoin Magazine dates the Treasury action to Tuesday, while Decrypt and Treasury’s post point to Wednesday, October 28. None of these articles links the sanctions to the Binance hack.

Institutions & ETFs

NYSE owner ICE invests in Trade[XYZ] to pursue regulated Hyperliquid perpetuals in the US

ICE is taking a minority stake in Trade[XYZ] and plans a separate US market for Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures. The plan still needs CFTC approval.

• On October 29, Trade.xyz announced ICE’s investment and a plan for a separate US market, with its own exchange and clearing setup, offering 24/7 contracts on equities, indices, commodities, FX and crypto. (Unchained, The Block)
• The Defiant reported that ICE’s stake is a minority one, with retail access planned through regulated futures brokers, including ICE’s joint venture with OKX; the size and terms were not disclosed. (The Defiant, Unchained)
• Billionaire Stan Druckenmiller disclosed an investment in Trade[XYZ]; CoinDesk reported that his family office had previously reported owning shares in a treasury company focused on HYPE, Hyperliquid’s token, and cited a $23 million indirect investment. (CoinDesk, Unchained)
• HYPE rose about 15% on the news. (The Block)
• Trade.xyz says its existing markets, live for a little over a year, have handled more than $650 billion in volume and will keep running alongside the US effort. (Unchained)

Context: Perpetual futures, or perps, are derivatives with no expiry date, and Hyperliquid is a blockchain-based trading venue for them that remains closed to US users. ICE’s stance has shifted quickly: Bloomberg reported in May that ICE and CME urged regulators to examine Hyperliquid over manipulation risks, and about two weeks later ICE’s CEO called it bigger than Nasdaq. In August, President Trump said CFTC Chair Mike Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid to the US, and Kraken parent Payward has proposed a separate route through its Bitnomial exchange.

Why it matters: A major traditional exchange operator is trying to bring a crypto-native venue under US regulation rather than simply compete against it. If approved, the plan could give US traders regulated access to round-the-clock contracts on a wide range of assets.

Disputed or unconfirmed: Most details come from Trade.xyz, and at Unchained’s publication ICE had not issued its own statement or responded to a request for comment. The announcement mentioned no filing with or approval from the CFTC, and the volume figure is the company’s own.

Watch next: Any CFTC filing or decision; Trade.xyz says more on products, eligibility and timing will come as approvals progress.

Objections to the OKX-ICE tokenized stock venue reach 38 companies

Companies including Walmart, JPMorgan, Microsoft and Coca-Cola have used an SEC rule to keep third-party tokens of their shares off the planned OKX-ICE venue. The list has grown with each revision, and no launch date has been given.

• The venue’s first notice, dated October 4, listed 63 tickers from 62 companies for tokenized trading. (Unchained, Unchained)
• Objections rose to nine on October 15, 16 on October 19 and 22 on October 23. (Unchained, Decrypt)
• The October 26 notice showed 26 objectors, adding names including IBM, Oracle and Intel, and repeated risk warnings about an internally audited access-token contract and uncertain investor protection coverage for self-custodied tokens. (Unchained)
• The October 27 notice reached 33, adding JPMorgan, AMD, Coca-Cola, Applied Materials, Adobe, Dell and Sandisk. (Unchained)
• The October 28 notice reached 38, adding Walmart, Eli Lilly, Cigna, Carnival and Arcos Dorados, which broadened the pushback into retail, health care and travel. (Unchained, Decrypt)

Context: Tokenized stocks are blockchain-based tokens that represent shares. The venue is a 50-50 joint venture between ICE and an OKX affiliate, and trading would run through restricted Uniswap v4 pools on OKX’s XLayer network. Under an SEC exemption dated September 17, a venue must notify a company before trading a token of its stock created by an unaffiliated third party, and a timely written objection keeps that token off the venue.

Why it matters: The opt-out is proving widely used, which could leave the venue with a much narrower list of stocks than first planned. Large companies are showing they want a say in how their shares trade onchain, though the notices do not explain their reasons.

Disputed or unconfirmed: Decrypt describes the October 15 list of nine as the venue’s first list of objectors, while Unchained says an October 8 notice already listed four. The latest notice also names Amazon Web Services as cloud provider for off-chain systems while a disaster-recovery passage still says they are hosted by Alibaba Cloud.

Watch next: Whether Nvidia, Tesla, Apple or Amazon object before their 30-day windows close, and whether the venue announces a launch date.

Stablecoins & Payments

Ripple wins final federal trust charter as RLUSD gains a Moody’s rating and Coinbase listing

US bank regulator the OCC gave final approval to Ripple National Trust Bank, which will oversee the reserves behind Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. Within days, RLUSD also received investment-grade ratings from Moody’s and a listing on Coinbase.

• On October 26, Ripple announced that the OCC had converted its December 2025 conditional approval into a final charter; it gave no opening date. (Unchained, The Block)
• Once open, the bank will hold RLUSD’s segregated reserves, act as collateral trustee for token holders and be allowed to offer digital-asset custody to enterprise clients. (Unchained)
• Issuance stays with Standard Custody & Trust Company, a Ripple subsidiary regulated by New York’s financial regulator, while BNY remains the main custodian of the reserves. (Unchained, The Block)
• Moody’s assigned RLUSD long-term and short-term ratings of A2 and P-1, citing the credit quality and market value of its reserve assets. (The Block)
• Coinbase added RLUSD across its retail, exchange and Prime platforms, with 1:1 dollar conversion on the XRP Ledger, Ethereum and Base. (The Block)

Context: RLUSD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin that Ripple launched in December 2024; Ripple puts its market value at $2.5 billion. The charter adds federal supervision on top of New York oversight as US agencies implement the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed in July 2025.

Why it matters: Federal oversight, a credit rating and wider distribution all make RLUSD easier for institutions to use. The charter also continues crypto firms’ push into the regulated banking system.

Disputed or unconfirmed: RLUSD’s $2.5 billion market value and full-backing claim are Ripple’s own statements, although the company says it publishes monthly independent attestations.

Watch next: The opening date for Ripple National Trust Bank, which has not been announced.

Companies & Industry

Strategy posts $20.9 billion paper-driven Q3 profit, holds its Bitcoin steady and loses its CFO

Strategy’s record quarterly operating income came entirely from marking up its Bitcoin; without that gain, operations lost about $2.6 million. The company is prioritizing buybacks of its STRC preferred stock, recently paused Bitcoin purchases, and its CFO is leaving on November 5.

• Strategy disclosed on October 26 that it spent $204.9 million repurchasing STRC preferred shares from October 19 to 25 and bought no Bitcoin, leaving its holdings at 848,517 BTC at an average cost of about $75,446. (Unchained, The Block)
• The buybacks cut its general USD Cash balance to $242.4 million from $447.3 million a week earlier, while its separate USD Reserve held at $4.83 billion. (Unchained)
• On October 29, Strategy reported Q3 operating income of $20.91 billion and net income of $19.53 billion, though it still shows a $1.89 billion operating loss for the first nine months of the year. (Unchained, The Block)
• In Q3 it bought 7,218 BTC, down from 85,296 in Q2, and sold 5,552 BTC to fund $239.9 million of preferred dividends and $108.6 million of STRC repurchases. (Unchained)
• CFO Andrew Kang said he is leaving on November 5 for personal reasons; CEO Phong Le will serve as principal financial officer through 2026, and Reza Virasteh will become CFO and co-principal financial officer alongside him on January 1, 2027. (Unchained)
• Daily preferred dividends were approved with 99.3% of votes cast, beginning with STRC’s November 1 record date, and STRC closed at $99.99 on October 29 after roughly $2 billion of buybacks. (Unchained, The Block)

Context: Strategy is the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, with roughly 4% of Bitcoin’s capped supply, and it funds purchases by selling stock and preferred shares that it calls digital credit. STRC fell to about $75 at the end of June. The board has since raised its preferred buyback limit to $3 billion, with about $957 million still available.

Why it matters: The company that has been a large and regular Bitcoin buyer is now spending cash to support its preferred stock, and it even sold some Bitcoin in Q3 to meet preferred costs. Its headline profit depends on the Bitcoin price at quarter-end, so it says little about cash generation.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The Block’s headline says preferred shareholders approved daily dividends, while Unchained earlier described the October 28 vote as one for common shareholders. Kang’s description of a record result and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor’s expectation that STRC would return to par within four months of any future slip are company statements.

Watch next: STRC’s November 1 record date for daily dividends, Kang’s departure on November 5 and whether weekly filings show Bitcoin purchases resuming.

Coinbase reports $719 million Q3 profit, driven mainly by gains on its own crypto

Coinbase returned to profit largely through about $715 million of gains on crypto it holds as an investment; adjusted net income was $78 million. Prediction markets stood out, passing $200 million in annualized revenue.

• On October 29, Coinbase reported Q3 net income of $719 million, or $2.51 per diluted share, against an expected loss of 15 cents, following a $359.5 million loss in Q2. (Decrypt, Unchained)
• Revenue was $1.22 billion, flat on the quarter and down 35% from a year earlier; transaction revenue fell 1% to $590 million but beat analysts’ expectations of about $527 million. (Decrypt, The Defiant)
• Prediction-market daily traders grew more than 60% from Q2, and CEO Brian Armstrong said Coinbase received CFTC approval to list its own contracts. (Unchained, Decrypt)
• Subscription and services revenue rose 3% to $570 million, including $307 million from stablecoins, and average USDC in Coinbase products reached a record $22 billion. (Decrypt, Unchained)
• Coinbase cut its 2026 adjusted expense forecast to $4.15 billion to $4.3 billion and said Q4 transaction revenue was about $165 million through October 25. (Decrypt)
• Armstrong adopted a plan to sell up to $1.31 billion in shares, and Fred Ehrsam and Emilie Choi also adopted share-sale plans with windows extending into 2027. (The Defiant)

Context: Coinbase is the largest publicly traded US crypto exchange by profile, and its results reflect a quiet market: crypto volatility sank to multiyear lows and market-wide trading volume fell about 10%. Its share of global trading volume rose for a fourth straight quarter, to 10.7%. The shares closed at $160.59 before the results, more than 55% below their 52-week high.

Why it matters: The gap between reported and adjusted profit shows how much the headline depends on crypto prices. Prediction markets give Coinbase a new source of revenue, though one exposed to the state legal fight seen in Utah.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The prediction-market growth figures and Coinbase’s description of the business as healthy come from the company.

Markets

Fed holds rates in a split vote as Bitcoin falls below $80,000 and liquidations reach $1.5 billion

The Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75% to 4.00%, with two officials wanting a hike, and traders had priced in a likely December increase. Bitcoin stood at $77,215 on October 31, down 4.5% on the week, as total crypto market value reached about $2.62 trillion.

• Around October 24, Bitcoin briefly dropped below $80,000, with $404 million in bullish positions liquidated in four hours; spot Bitcoin ETFs had lost $773 million on the preceding Thursday and Friday. (The Block)
• On October 28, the Fed voted 10-2 to hold rates, with Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack favoring a quarter-point rise. (Decrypt, The Defiant)
• Bitcoin barely moved at first, trading near $80,950 after briefly passing $81,600 earlier that day, then gave back its small gain. (Decrypt, The Defiant)
• Before the decision, traders put the odds of a hike at the December 8-9 meeting above 70%. (Decrypt)
• A later selloff in Bitcoin, ether and XRP wiped out $1.5 billion in leveraged bets, with bullish positions making up nearly 84% and Binance handling almost half; CoinDesk said a rebound then began to catch short sellers. (CoinDesk)

Context: Liquidations are forced closures of borrowed positions, and they can deepen a price move. The Fed raised rates in September for the first time since 2023. Inflation was 3.7% in the 12 months through September, with US crude near $100 as the US-Iran war squeezes supply. The 10-year Treasury yield closed at 4.99% on October 27, and higher yields can draw money away from assets that pay no yield, such as Bitcoin.

Why it matters: A central bank debating further hikes is a harder backdrop for risk assets. Heavy leverage on the long side made the decline sharper, while the Binance hack added a separate shock in the same days.

Disputed or unconfirmed: The articles provided do not establish a single cause for the slide. The Fed, ETF outflows, leverage and the Binance hack all coincided with the weakness, but none can be isolated as the sole driver.

Watch next: The October jobs report on November 6, October inflation data on November 10 and the Fed meeting on December 8-9.

Quick hits

• Binance is shutting Brazilian users out of new loans and margin and removing access to eight products and 22 tokens, after saying it applied to Brazil’s central bank days before an October 30 licensing deadline. (Unchained)
• South Korea is reportedly weighing a fourth delay of its crypto gains tax, to 2029, to line up with the US schedule for the OECD’s CARF digital-asset tax framework. (The Block)
• Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe proposed ending automatic grants funding, citing a treasury valued at more than $125 million. (The Block)
• Canada’s draft stablecoin rules, open for comment until December 23, would allow usage rewards, bar issuers from paying yield through third parties and cap redemption fees at 1%, with a target start of fall 2027. (Unchained)
• KuCoin cut off users in Russia and Belarus on October 29 without posting a public withdrawal deadline, following similar moves by MEXC and Bitget, while Russia’s central bank gave registered crypto firms 90 days to join a self-regulator. (Unchained)
• Datavault AI’s stock fell 50% after the company said it could not withdraw Bitcoin tied to a $150 million share deal with Scilex. (The Block)
• Two Texas brothers were sentenced to 15 years for holding a Minnesota family at gunpoint for nine hours in an $8 million crypto heist. (The Block)
• Aviva Investors launched a tokenized share class of its $29 billion Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger. (The Block)