Binance Lost $6.3 Billion to North Korea. Here’s What Else Happened in Crypto.
North Korea’s TraderTraitor group drained about $6.3 billion from Binance on October 29, making it the largest crypto exchange breach on record. Partners froze roughly $3 billion. Bitcoin ETFs posted their worst single-day outflows since June. The DTCC launched a tokenization service with 20 major banks. And the UK moved to exempt stablecoins from Capital Gains Tax.
Here is everything that mattered in crypto from last week.
Binance Lost $6.3 Billion in Its Biggest-Ever Breach
Binance disclosed a breach on October 29 that resulted in about $6.3 billion leaving the exchange. Partners managed to freeze roughly $3 billion of the stolen funds. TRM Labs attributed the attack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.
TraderTraitor is the same state-sponsored operation behind the $1.4 billion Bybit hack earlier this year. The Binance breach is significantly larger. About $3.3 billion remains unrecovered based on the numbers disclosed so far.
Bitcoin dipped to around $77,600 in the immediate aftermath before recovering to roughly $78,600 — its third straight daily gain as markets absorbed the news. Binance has not disclosed the attack vector or the specific assets taken.
Bitcoin ETFs Bled $643 Million in a Single Day
US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $643.2 million in net outflows on October 30, the largest single-day withdrawal since June.
The outflow came in the same week as the Binance hack disclosure and a broader risk-off move in markets. Whether the hack drove the selling or the outflows were already in motion is not clear from the data, but the timing placed both events in the same week.
Bitcoin closed the week near $78,600 after the dip to $77,600. That is still well below its Q3 close above $100,000.
DTCC Launched a Tokenization Service With 20 Major Banks
The DTCC launched a tokenization service for securities held in DTC custody. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, and UBS were among the 20 participants that signed access agreements.
The DTCC holds custody of roughly $87 trillion in securities. A tokenization layer on top of DTC custody puts on-chain representation of those assets within reach for the institutions that already clear and settle through the system.
This is infrastructure-level, not retail-facing. But 20 major participants committing access agreements at launch means the service is live with meaningful counterparty coverage from day one.
CFTC Is Opening a Voluntary Registration Path for Crypto Exchanges
CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said the agency is advancing a voluntary federal registration pathway for crypto exchanges offering leveraged or financed retail trading. Comments are due December 14.
Voluntary registration lets exchanges operating in leveraged crypto markets seek a federal regulatory home without waiting for Congress to pass comprehensive market structure legislation. The CLARITY Act stalled in the Senate last week. This pathway lets the CFTC move ahead through rulemaking.
The comment period runs to mid-December. A final rule would not arrive before 2027 at the earliest.
ICE Is Building a Regulated US Perpetual Futures Venue
Intercontinental Exchange partnered with trade[XYZ] to build a regulated US perpetual futures venue on Hyperliquid, pending CFTC approval.
Perpetual futures are the most actively traded instrument in crypto globally, with daily volume routinely exceeding spot markets. They have no US-regulated equivalent yet. The OCC finalized GENIUS Act stablecoin rules this week with an effective date of January 18, 2027; a reminder that the regulatory calendar is filling in across multiple fronts simultaneously.
ICE owns the NYSE. A CFTC-regulated perpetual futures product from that institutional background would be a different proposition from offshore venues.
Tether Reported $1.5 Billion in Q3 Net Operating Profit
Tether reported $1.5 billion in net operating profit for Q3 and $7.95 billion in excess reserves above its outstanding stablecoin liabilities.
The excess reserve figure has grown steadily across 2026. With USDT excluded from MiCA-compliant EU platforms and ESMA’s three-month deadline running, Tether’s operating base is shifting. Most of its volume sits outside the EU. The Q3 numbers suggest that shift has not dented profitability.
The UK Proposed Exempting Stablecoins From Capital Gains Tax
The UK Budget on October 28 proposed exempting disposals of eligible stablecoins from Capital Gains Tax, with a proposed start date of April 2027.
The proposal covers eligible stablecoins, not crypto broadly. It targets one of the friction points for using stablecoins in payments and settlement; if every transaction triggers a CGT event, stablecoins cannot function practically as a payment instrument. The exemption, if enacted, removes that barrier for UK-regulated stablecoin use cases.
HTX Settled With the FCA Through 2031
HTX settled the FCA’s UK financial promotions case with court undertakings running to October 2031. The exchange confirmed it no longer serves British customers.
The FCA has been pursuing enforcement on crypto financial promotions since rules tightened in 2023. HTX exiting the UK market as part of a five-year settlement is the longest-running enforcement commitment the agency has secured against a crypto exchange.
Other News Worth Noting
Aviva Investors launched a tokenized share class of its Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger with a £50 million initial investment. BNY added custody support for XRP and RLUSD for eligible institutional clients. SBI Holdings, Startale and BlackRock agreed to study linking tokenized money-market funds with the yen stablecoin JPYSC.
Janus Henderson and Centrifuge launched a blockchain-based fund tracking the Nasdaq-100 on Stellar for eligible non-US investors. Itaú formalized its crypto trading and custody services in Brazil on October 27. Coinbase reported Q3 revenue of $1.22 billion, down 35% year over year, while prediction markets topped $200 million in annualized revenue.
Bitmine bought 10,452 ETH, bringing its holdings to 6,051,933 ETH; about 4.95% of total supply. Strategy held its 848,517 BTC steady while spending $204.9 million repurchasing preferred shares. The US DOJ charged six people in an NFT fraud network that used fake dating personas and reached about 800 victims. Nasdaq-listed Next Technology Holding authorized selling or borrowing against roughly $449 million in Bitcoin, citing the Binance hack and quantum computing risks.
Wrapping Up
This week Binance lost $6.3 billion in what appears to be the largest crypto exchange breach on record, with North Korea’s TraderTraitor group named as the attacker and roughly $3 billion frozen by partners. Bitcoin ETFs posted $643 million in outflows in a single day. The DTCC launched a tokenization service with 20 major institutional participants. The CFTC moved toward a voluntary registration pathway for crypto exchanges. ICE announced a regulated perpetual futures venue on Hyperliquid pending CFTC approval. Tether posted $1.5 billion in Q3 profit. The UK proposed a stablecoin CGT exemption from April 2027. A $6.3 billion hack in the same week as the heaviest ETF outflows since June sets a difficult tone heading into November.
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