Daily Crypto Brief · November 2nd

The incident highlights the immutable transparency of blockchain, where stolen assets remain visible yet untouchable, affecting user trust. The post Binance hacker’s frozen-in-place Bitcoin stash is drawing begging notes and token shills appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The central bank is surveying 31 financial institutions on how a major exchange shutdown, prolonged crypto downturn or losses at another firm could affect their operations. The Bank of Korea has reportedly asked banks and brokerages about cryptocurrency-related risks, asking how they would be affected by a major exchange hack, a market crash or heavy losses at another financial institution. The central bank began surveying 18 banks and 13 brokerages on Oct.

The significant outflows from Ethereum ETFs suggest a waning investor interest, potentially impacting future market dynamics and asset preferences. The post Bitcoin spot ETFs see $203M net outflows, Ethereum ETFs lose $432M appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The Bank of Korea's survey could lead to enhanced regulatory measures, impacting financial stability and crypto market integration strategies. The post Bank of Korea quizzes 31 financial firms on crypto shock scenarios appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

$1.07 billion in crypto flowed into casinos in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, from January to September 2026, despite a government crackdown on scams and international sanctions. A significant chunk, around $687 million, came from casinos linked to U.S. Treasury-designated networks. Even after sanctions were announced, these operators continued to receive funds—$184 million to Xihu Resort Hotel and $129 million to Huan Hai Bo Lai International Investment from April to September.

Interestingly, while total inflows have dipped from an average of $148 million per month earlier in the year to about $95 million in July and August, TRM Labs suggests that the decline might not tell the whole story. Casino operators are changing wallet addresses frequently, making it tricky to track all transactions.

USDT on the TRON blockchain dominated, accounting for 99.9% of crypto received, likely due to its low fees and strong liquidity. Despite the crackdown, the crypto-to-cash network in Sihanoukville remains active, with casinos converting USDT into chips and cash without much oversight.

The broader environment in Sihanoukville is slowing down, with many businesses tied to scam operations closing, yet the flow of crypto into these casinos shows resilience. Enforcement actions haven’t fully halted the movement of funds, indicating a complex landscape ahead.

For listeners who want low-fee crypto exposure, our markets partner Kraken supports USDT — link in show notes.

$6.3 billion—that's the figure from the recent Binance hack, and Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan believes it wouldn’t have been as easy to recover from this a decade ago. He argues that while this theft is significant, it doesn't change Bitcoin's long-term trajectory. Interestingly, the day after the hack, US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a $643 million drop, but the price was already on a downward trend before the news broke.

Looking back at past hacks like Mt. Gox and Bitfinex, we see similar patterns. Mt. Gox's collapse in 2014 saw Bitcoin drop 30%, but it eventually recovered, with creditors getting repaid in 2024. Bitfinex's 2016 hack led to a 13% dip over two days, and Bybit's recent loss of $1.5 billion caused a notable drop in reserves. Right now, Bitcoin's performance is down 13.6%, according to Glassnode.

What’s interesting is that Binance managed to freeze about $3 billion of the stolen funds, which Hougan sees as a sign of industry maturity. He points out that institutions didn't have ETFs for security five years ago, so this is a step forward. However, the FBI has linked the attack to North Korea, which has been involved in other breaches as well.

So, the upcoming ETF flows will be telling—will Binance bounce back like Bybit did, or will it struggle? For listeners who want low-fee crypto exposure, our markets partner Kraken supports Bitcoin—link in show notes.

TL;DR: Bitcoin Core 32.1 introduces network, privacy and interface changes, while 31.2 and 30.4 provide maintenance updates. Operators need to check integrations as well as version numbers. Bitcoin Core’s late-October releases give node operators several upgrade paths, but the details deserve more attention than the version labels. The 32.1 release notes explain that 32.0 was tagged but never fully announced or released because of last-minute issues. That makes 32.1 the relevant new major-version release to examine.

THORChain node operators paused swaps involving assets on 10 networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Tron. THORChain halted swaps across multiple blockchains on Saturday after an Ethereum block reorganization exposed a refund bug, which may have inadvertently slowed the movement of funds stolen from Binance, according to Chainalysis. According to THORChain, the incident began at 11:34 UTC on Saturday, when a one-block reorganization on Ethereum removed a 10 ETH deposit that THORChain had already credited.

TL;DR: Mercado Bitcoin and Sui have outlined access to SUI and stablecoins, with USDsui collateral and tokenized assets in scope. A potential Hashi integration remains exploratory. Sui’s planned expansion through Mercado Bitcoin brings together several different distribution opportunities: access to tokens, conversion between local money and stablecoins, and the possibility of connecting those assets to lending and investment products. The October 29 announcement is therefore more than a listing headline.

TL;DR: Two open XRP Ledger proposals address authorization checks for liquidity-pool tokens and existing trust-line balances. The changes remain under review and are not active network rules. XRP Ledger developers are reviewing targeted changes to the way issued-token permissions are checked in payment and liquidity-pool operations. The current public code record shows two relevant open proposals, both introduced on October 27. The work is associated with the planned fixCleanup3_5_0 amendment.