Binance Hacked for Billions

gm, Defiers!

These are the biggest stories in DeFi and crypto:

• Binance paused withdrawals after a suspected hack
• Polymarket halted trading after a vendor breach
• ICE plans U.S.-regulated Hyperliquid perps
• Utah charged Kalshi and its co-founders
• Coinbase beat Q3 transaction revenue forecasts

Binance paused withdrawals today after billions of dollars in crypto left three of its Ethereum wallets. One analyst puts the total at about $3.5 billion, and Binance has not given a figure. The exchange calls it a security issue and says user funds are safe. Founder Changpeng Zhao, who no longer runs Binance, said it appears to be a hack and that Binance will cover the loss.

The transfers ran through one wallet permission. At 4:20 p.m. ET, an EIP-7702 delegation installed code on the wallet Etherscan labels Binance 14. Three minutes later, an outside address called that code and moved 167,464 ETH and 1.615 billion USDT. The same permission then moved 780 million USDC out of a second Binance wallet.

On Oct. 20 we reported that issuer blacklists recovered nothing in 60 exploits this year. Blockaid found a blacklist was available in 16 of them and used in none. Today the issuers acted within the hour. Tether blacklisted the receiving address 37 minutes after the first transfer and says it froze more than 1.567 billion USDT. Circle froze more than 800 million USDC in coordination with law enforcement, CEO Jeremy Allaire said. Binance CEO Yi He said Ripple froze about $200 million. A freeze holds the tokens in place, and it does not return them to Binance.

Ether has no issuer to call. By our tally, about 197,170 ETH left the three wallets, worth roughly $440 million at $2,250. Ether fell about 4.5% over the day. During the outflows, ETH in one Uniswap pool traded at a 20% premium over Binance for about 19 minutes. Aave froze its DAO-operated markets as a precaution and said its contracts are unaffected.

If you hold funds on Binance, use only its official channels for updates. The exchange warns that scammers are sending fake links and requests for account details.

The latest withdrawal status is in our timeline and FAQ.

Read more below!

As of 23:49 UTC, Oct. 29. Data: CoinGecko, Aave, Hyperliquid. Full list

WATCH

Kaiko's $110M Raise, a Nation Onchain, Stablecoins in 190 Countries & More: On the Floor at Stellar's Meridian

We were on the floor at Stellar's Meridian today, covering Kaiko's $110 million raise, a nation moving onchain and stablecoins in 190 countries. Watch the replay on X.

HACKS

Binance Pauses Withdrawals Amid Suspected Hack, Says User Funds Are Safe

Binance kept withdrawals paused into the evening and gave no restart time. At 7:06 p.m. ET it also suspended Binance Alpha trading. Security firm Blockaid said the transfers looked unauthorized but could not rule out an internal sweep. Binance.US says it runs separately and is operating normally. Market makers GSR and Wintermute said on X that their Binance exposure is limited. A viral post about a Binance rescue takeover reuses CZ's 2022 FTX message. Until withdrawals resume, users cannot move funds off Binance to trade or post collateral elsewhere.

Binance Pauses Withdrawals Amid Suspected Hack, Says User Funds Are Safe

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SECURITY

Polymarket Halts Trading and Pauses Relayer Amid Incident

Polymarket halted new trading for about an hour on Oct. 29 after a third-party provider was compromised. The halt also blocked sell orders, so traders could not exit positions. Polymarket pledged to make affected users whole, and Bubblemaps traced about $2.7 million leaving the platform. Separately, Polymarket is probing suspicious Israeli election trades, and Sens. Warren and Curtis gave it and Kalshi until Nov. 3 to prove their election safeguards. It also added 15-minute gold and silver bets.

DEFI

ICE Plans US-Regulated Hyperliquid Perps With TradeXYZ

Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE parent, plans a U.S.-regulated perpetual futures venue built on Hyperliquid with TradeXYZ. It would trade around the clock in crypto, equities, indices, commodities and currencies. ICE is taking a minority stake in TradeXYZ and will operate the regulated markets. Traders would reach it through registered futures brokers, including ICE's venture with OKX. Launch needs regulatory approval, including for leverage, and has no date. If approved, U.S. retail traders would get perpetuals from a regulated exchange operator. Separately, Grayscale's HYPG staking ETF now trades on Nasdaq.

REGULATION

Utah Brings Criminal Charges Against Kalshi and Its Co-Founders

Utah prosecutors charged Kalshi and co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara with 12 felony counts of online gambling promotion, a felony pattern-of-unlawful-activity count and a misdemeanor. They allege a state investigator placed 12 sports bets from Utah in September. The pattern charge carries one to 15 years in prison for an individual. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig called the case a “blatant overreach” and said the agency will defend its authority. The charges make Kalshi's founders personally liable in a dispute that was about where the company can operate.

CEFI

Coinbase Beats Q3 Transaction Revenue Estimates as Crypto Gains Lift Profit

Coinbase reported $590 million in third-quarter transaction revenue, above the roughly $527 million analysts expected, as prediction markets offset weaker crypto trading. Total revenue was $1.216 billion, down 35% from a year earlier. Net income of $719 million came almost entirely from $715 million in gains on crypto Coinbase holds. Adjusted net income was $77.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA rose 60% from the prior quarter to $333 million. Separately, CEO Brian Armstrong adopted a plan to sell up to $1.31 billion in shares through October 2027.

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Tokenized GOOGL Drops Nearly 12% Alongside After-Hours Stock Selloff — the drop came in a Uniswap pool after the U.S. close.

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zkLink Nova Bridge Exploit Drains About $779,000 in One Transaction — also: Allium revoked API keys after a breach, and Wagyu confirmed a Monero swap data leak.

Bitcoin Core Patches Three Bugs, Including Non-Linux Node Crash — fixes ship in versions 29.5, 30.4, 31.2 and 32.1.

Singapore Police Report $2.7 Million in Tampered Ledger Wallet Losses — Ledger has not confirmed the campaign's total losses.

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SEC Charges BG Wealth and DSJ Exchange in Alleged $130 Million Crypto Fraud — plus India's ED searched premises in a $524 million crypto transfer probe.

Bank of England Proposes Tokenized Collateral Safeguards for Clearinghouses — plus Westpac caps crypto payments at A$10,000 a month from Dec. 1.

Shopify Takes Shop Pay Into AI Agents and Off-Platform Checkouts — Shop Pay will work inside personal AI agents.

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