Kaupr Digest — Sunday, 1 November 2026
Good evening!
Binance was hacked for $6.3 billion on Thursday evening, and this week's Kaupr Weekly looks at what really broke. Anthropic filed for its IPO as Big Tech's earnings put AI spending to the test, tokenisation and stablecoins moved further into core market infrastructure, and AI agents got access to investment accounts along with new limits. Bitcoin dipped below $80,000 as crypto firms reported. Five threads ran through the week's Daily editions; here they are in one read.
We covered the hack from Friday morning through Sunday. 👉 This is the latest on the Binance hack →, with links to all our reports.
Impact Onchain is live on Wednesday, and Saturday's conversation with Bitcoinpolitisk Institutt Norge is now available to watch.
— Morten
Binance hacked for $6.3 billion
The hack. On Thursday evening, attackers drained $6.3 billion from Binance's hot wallets on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Avalanche, among the largest exchange thefts on record. One signed authorisation under the EIP-7702 standard was enough to empty a wallet within minutes.
The response. Tether and Circle froze about $2.8 billion in stablecoins between them. Binance pledged to cover all customer losses from its own funds, paused withdrawals on several networks and promised a proof-of-reserves report.
Who was behind it. The FBI and other US agencies attributed the hack to North Korea, in line with analytics firms that pointed to the Lazarus-linked group TraderTraitor.
The market. About $628 million in leveraged positions were liquidated within an hour, and bitcoin slid towards $77,800 as ether, solana and BNB hit fresh lows.
Stablecoin freezes blocked part of the loss within hours, but around 195,000 ETH had already moved beyond reach.
🎧 Kaupr Weekly
Episode 14: Binance's $6.3 Billion Hack: What Really Broke
Binance has suffered the biggest hack in crypto history. In this nine-minute episode, we look at what really broke.
KAUPR WEEKLY
Episode 14 - Binance’s $6.3 Billion Hack: What Really Broke
Anthropic's IPO filing and Big Tech's AI spending
Anthropic files. Anthropic filed its S-1 for a Nasdaq listing under the ticker "ANT", in an IPO that could value it above $1.5 trillion. The filing shows an $80.7 billion first-half loss, its first operating profit in the second quarter, and more than half of its largest customers using several Claude products.
Earnings test the spending. Samsung and Alphabet reported record numbers and still saw their shares fall. Google Cloud more than doubled, but Alphabet's free cash flow turned negative. Microsoft rose, generating $18.6 billion in free cash flow despite heavy spending.
The debate continues. Tom Lee, JPMorgan and Eric Schmidt argued the AI selloff was nearing its end, while Elon Musk warned of a shakeout among more than 200 neoclouds. Raoul Pal sees no ceiling for AI spending.
Investors are judging AI spending not only by growth, but by how much cash is left afterwards.
Tokenisation and stablecoins move into core infrastructure
Wall Street's plumbing. DTCC moved securities tokenisation live, with BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Nasdaq and NYSE in its working group. JPMorgan extended its tokenised money-market funds to Solana, while the number of companies objecting to OKX-ICE tokenising their shares reached 22.
Europe builds. Boerse Stuttgart became the first European exchange group with a DLT trading and settlement licence, Latvia aims for tokenisation rules in 2027, and Spiko's SAFO overtook BlackRock's BUIDL as the largest tokenised fund. Chainlink launched round-the-clock pricing for tokenised assets.
Stablecoins in payments. Visa launched commercial USDC-funded transfers, Stripe plans stablecoin cards in more than 100 countries, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said stablecoins will help cement the dollar's dominance. In Brazil, companies rushed into stablecoins as the real crashed on election day.
Much of this week's tokenisation news came from settlement systems, exchange groups and card networks.
📅 Kaupr Events
Impact Onchain — Wednesday 4 November, 11:00–12:30 CET
Together with FirstBlock-athon Stockholm, we look at what it takes to turn hackathon work into lasting projects: funding, partners, pilots and buy-in, and blockchain beyond finance. Free and online.
Watch the recording: Hvem lytter til Bitcoin i Norge?
Our live conversation with Bitcoinpolitisk Institutt Norge on Saturday, in Norwegian, is now available to watch.
AI agents get access to accounts, and new limits
Access. Bitpanda and Denmark's Coop Bank opened investment accounts to AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, and Kryptos connected crypto portfolios to ChatGPT. None of them let the AI move money on its own.
Limits. Amazon, The RealReal and other retailers are making it harder for Meta's shopping agent Muse to buy, even as it expanded to Singapore. The CFTC's Mike Selig floated a "know-your-agent" idea, Finland's Agion and Sweden's SIROS Foundation teamed up to verify agents' identity, and Sweden's Government Offices blocked ChatGPT and Claude for civil servants.
As agents move closer to people's money, who they act for and what they may do are becoming open questions for banks, shops and regulators alike.
Bitcoin dips below $80,000 as crypto firms report
The market. Bitcoin slipped under $80,000 ahead of the Fed meeting, as large holders held back and retail deposits to Binance hit a six-month high. Coinbase said spot bitcoin ETFs have become the market's main buyers.
The earnings. Robinhood's crypto revenue fell 55%, and Coinbase's revenue fell as trading slowed. Strategy reported $19.5 billion in net income on its bitcoin gains, though its shares fell after hours. Bitwise raised its 2036 bitcoin target to $1.6 million.
Trading revenue at brokers and exchanges fell with volumes, while results at bitcoin holders moved with the price.
Also this week
Swiss crypto firm Bitcoin Suisse is launching in the Nordics, and Sweden's Finansinspektionen opened a call for input on tokenised money.
Lithuania's VIALET added tokenised money-market funds to safeguard client money, and Sweden's Goobit is preparing Futureproof, which rebalances bitcoin, gold and bonds.
CZ pitched BNB Chain as crypto's network for AI, and AI security startup Upwind raised $400 million.
Kaupr Today comes in two editions
Kaupr Daily — daily signals on onchain finance, every weekday.
Kaupr Digest — the week's most important news in one read, every Sunday.
More from Kaupr
Onchain Invest — tokenised assets, wealth and markets, for anyone putting money to work, every other Thursday.
Onchain Money — stablecoins, banks and payments for businesses and consumers, every other Thursday.
Onchain Growth — weekly briefing on the Nordic and Baltic onchain industry, every Tuesday.
Onchain Build — notes for builders, organisers and operators.
Onchain Community — where the industry meets between issues.
Kaupr Events — upcoming events, curated picks and full recordings.
Kaupr Weekly — ten-minute podcast on the week's most important news, every Sunday.
Thank you for reading Kaupr Digest. Wishing you a good Sunday — Kaupr Daily is back on Monday morning.
Best regards
Morten Myrstad
Founder & Editor