Binance hack may reach $5.8 billion, Polymarket resumes trading after exploit, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block's newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

It's a turbulent Thursday for crypto. Bitcoin is down to around $79,000 as Binance investigates a suspected major hack involving up to $5.8 billion.

Also in today's newsletter, Polymarket resumes trading after a $2.65 million exploit, NYSE parent ICE moves to bring Hyperliquid perps to the U.S., and Utah files criminal charges against Kalshi and its executives.

Meanwhile, Curve Finance launches on Stellar, and Uniswap opens its fee conversion tool to apps, starting with Robinhood. Strategy and Coinbase also posted their third-quarter earnings.

P.S. Don't forget to check out The Latent, our sister website covering AI. Get The Latent Daily here and all other The Block newsletters here. Also, follow The Block and The Latent on X for more updates.

Binance investigating suspected hack as suspicious outflows reach up to $5.8 billion

Binance is investigating a potential security breach after onchain data showed billions of dollars in suspicious transfers from the crypto exchange's hot wallets.

• Onchain data flagged by analyst Spreek showed about $3.55 billion transferred to an unlabeled wallet, with nearly $900 million subsequently moved to other wallets. Coinbase's Conor Grogan estimated the amount could be as high as $5.8 billion.
• Binance co-founder Yi He said the exchange was investigating the incident. Former CEO Changpeng Zhao said user funds were safe and that he expected any affected funds to be fully covered.
• Tether and Circle froze a combined $1.79 billion in stablecoins linked to the suspicious transfers. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino later said his firm had frozen more than 1.567 billion USDT.
• Security firm Blockaid reported about $3.3 billion in suspicious outflows across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche. Aave froze lending markets, while BNB fell more than 5.5%.

Polymarket resumes trading after $2.65 million exploit linked to compromised third-party provider

Prediction market platform Polymarket has fully resumed trading after temporarily halting operations Thursday following a suspected $2.65 million exploit linked to a compromised third-party provider.

• Polymarket placed its exchange in cancel-only mode, allowing users to cancel orders but blocking new orders and trades. It also paused relayer actions while investigating the incident.
• The platform later said it had identified and fixed the issue affecting its international website, Polymarket.com, after one of its third-party providers was compromised.
• Polymarket said it had referred the incident to relevant law enforcement authorities but did not identify the compromised provider.
• Trading has since fully resumed, with Polymarket saying it will reimburse all affected traders.

NYSE parent ICE moves to bring Hyperliquid perps to US

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has partnered with TradeXYZ to bring Hyperliquid-based perpetual futures to the U.S., subject to regulatory approval.

• ICE will operate the markets and handle clearing, TradeXYZ will design the contracts, and Hyperliquid's HIP-3 will provide the underlying technology. The markets will cover cryptocurrencies, equities, indices, commodities, and forex.
• ICE is also making a strategic investment in TradeXYZ. The new markets are expected to be available through participating brokers and platforms.
• Hyperliquid's HYPE token surged 15% on the news. Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller reportedly made his first-ever post on X to support the news, saying he was excited to be an investor in TradeXYZ.

Utah files criminal charges against Kalshi, executives over alleged illegal gambling

Utah has filed criminal charges against Kalshi, CEO Tarek Mansour and chief operating officer Luana Lopes Lara for allegedly promoting illegal online gambling.

• Attorney General Derek Brown accused Kalshi of allowing an undercover agent to place wagers. Kalshi called the charges a "crazy overreach" and said it would fight them in court.
• The charges follow Utah's lawsuit last week against Kalshi and two Susquehanna trading firms over alleged illegal gambling involving sports, elections and politics.
• The CFTC separately sued Utah on Tuesday, asserting its exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets. The regulator has sued at least 10 states over the issue.

Curve Finance launches on Stellar in first native deployment outside EVM ecosystem

Curve Finance has launched on Stellar mainnet, marking its first native deployment outside the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem.

• The launch brings Curve's StableSwap to Stellar, allowing users to create liquidity pools, swap assets, and provide liquidity.
• Curve founder Michael Egorov said the expansion was partly driven by institutional demand. Stellar supports stablecoins and tokenized assets.
• Curve also plans to launch FXSwap on Stellar for trading assets with different prices, including foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies, once its audit is complete.

In the next 24 hours

• The U.S. will release its third-quarter Employment Cost Index and October Chicago PMI on Friday.
• The Eurozone will release its flash third-quarter GDP growth estimates and September unemployment rate on Friday.
• Kamino (KMNO) and Zora (ZORA) are among the tokens scheduled to unlock on Friday.

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