Binance Restores Bitcoin Withdrawals After North Korea's Record $6.3B Hack

Binance reopened cryptocurrency withdrawals on November 1, starting with Bitcoin, three days after attackers drained $6.3B from the exchange's hot wallets across multiple blockchains. The breach, which began October 29, is now ranked as the largest theft in cryptocurrency history, surpassing the roughly $1.5B Bybit hack from 2025. The exchange set aside more than $6.34B in corporate funds, futures reserves, and its SAFU emergency protection pool to cover losses, keeping user balances intact.

The FBI and blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korea-linked hacking group. Binance reopened Bitcoin first, with Ether, USDT, USDC, BNB, and XRP following as each network cleared security and stability checks. Partners had already frozen roughly $3B of the stolen assets, though Bitcoin and Ether cannot be frozen in the same way.

Ripple Wins OCC Approval as Ether ETFs Bleed $1.2B in October

In a separate regulatory milestone, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank this week, completing a process that began with conditional approval in December 2025. The bank will manage reserves for Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin and offer digital asset custody, with BNY now supporting both XRP and RLUSD on its institutional custody platform.

Meanwhile, U.S. spot Ether ETFs shed $1.2B in October through October 22, their largest monthly outflow of 2026, with redemptions on all but two trading days. Bitcoin ETF holdings also declined, with total spot Bitcoin ETF assets under management falling to $106.49B as of November 1, down from $107.98B the prior week. Bitcoin itself traded near $77,400 to start November, down roughly 4% for the week, with market sentiment deep in fear territory and traders watching the $75,000 support level below and $85,000 resistance above.