The biggest crypto stories of November 4, 2026 (UTC), ranked by importance and how many outlets covered them: 40+ stories, each linked to its sources.
Bitcoin rose 3.1% to about $80,200 and Ether 5.9% as US stocks rallied after the midterms, though ETF outflows and hacks weighed on sentiment.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the firm holds about 150,000 BTC, roughly 50,000 more than its latest reserve attestation implies, per several outlets.
Justin Sun asked a federal court to sanction World Liberty Financial, alleging it delayed disclosing UAE ties in his $45 million WLFI token lawsuit.
The CFTC says perpetual futures on individual stocks can list on dual-registered US exchanges, while critics flag leverage risks and a pending CME lawsuit.
The FBI attributed the reported $6 billion-plus Binance theft to North Korea, days after Trump said the U.S. was still investigating who was responsible.
South Korean financial regulators have urged domestic crypto exchanges to strengthen security and hold a larger share of assets in cold storage, with tighter internal access controls. The move follows a reported $6.3 billion hack on Binance. For traders, it signals stricter compliance and possible operational changes at local exchanges.
Read on Bitcoin.com News Story page
Bitcoin climbed toward $80,500 as risk assets rallied after Democrats gained ground in the midterm elections and oil prices fell. The move extends a recovery in crypto alongside a stronger US stock market. Traders are watching whether the broader risk-on tone holds.
Read on Cointelegraph Story page
Circle's Payments Network reported $41.3 billion in annualized volume for Q3, with Circle keeping 52.4% of revenue and reserve income after distribution costs. ARC token sales helped lift that retained share, and a pending Tazapay acquisition would expand local payout access. The figures show growing payments usage tied to USDC rails.
Read on The Defiant Story page
Morgan Stanley said on X that it is using the DTCC Tokenization Service to tokenize U.S. equities and Treasuries, six days after the service went live. The post did not name the securities, amounts or blockchain used. DTCC said 20 DTC participants had signed agreements to use the service at launch.
Riot Platforms, the second-largest publicly listed Bitcoin miner, sold 10,599 BTC in Q3, cutting its holdings from 11,380 to 2,418, a drop of nearly 79%. It sold about 20,264 BTC in the first nine months to fund data center construction. Heavy miner selling adds supply pressure, though Riot also signed a 15-year AI lab data center lease worth about $28 billion.
Read on Wu Blockchain Story page
SEC staff said they view Canton Coin as a digital commodity and will not recommend enforcement over how it is minted. The move comes a week after DTCC launched a tokenization service that partly runs on the Canton Network. Traders may see this as a regulatory green light for tokenization infrastructure, though Canton Coin is not on the tracked asset list.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $116 million in net outflows on November 3, extending a three-day outflow streak. Spot Ethereum ETFs saw roughly $85 million in outflows, their seventh straight day of net redemptions. Sustained ETF selling signals weaker institutional demand and can add pressure to prices for traders to watch.
Read on Wu Blockchain Story page
Nasdaq has approved the listing of Canary's staked Injective ETF, which would stake at least 90% of its INJ holdings and charge a 1.10% annual sponsor fee. The approval adds a regulated US product for Injective exposure. INJ is not in the known asset list, so no tracked symbol is tagged.
Read on The Defiant Story page
A Polygon proposal would use a hard fork to recover 70.49 million POL tied to the Polymarket and Binance incidents, moving the funds to recovery wallets. The proposal reportedly leaves POL's total supply unchanged. Traders should watch whether the community and validators back the fork.
Read on The Defiant Story page
Strategy's STRC preferred stock climbed back to $100 for the first time since May, following about $2.25 billion in buybacks. The stock is now back at the company's stated minimum price for new issuance. Traders may read this as a sign of renewed demand for Strategy's bitcoin-linked financing products.
Read on The Defiant Story page
Trump-linked tokens such as WLFI, from World Liberty Financial, fell as much as 11% before partly recovering after Democrats appeared set to win the Senate and House. The snippet says these tokens did not rebound like bitcoin did. Traders may see the political shift as a risk for politically linked crypto assets.
Read on Bitcoin.com News Story page
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng says about $2.85B in crypto tied to the $6.34B Binance hack is now frozen or intercepted by authorities and private firms. He states that 98% of impacted tokens have been replenished, withdrawals have broadly resumed, and no users bear the loss. The recovery progress should ease concerns about exchange solvency for traders.
Read on The Daily Hodl Story page
BitMart founder Sheldon Xia confirmed a minor security breach at the exchange, which may be linked to the same attackers who hit Brazil's Mercado Bitcoin. He also said the exchange is running with a bare-bones core team and severe security understaffing. For traders, this raises counterparty and operational risk concerns for BitMart users.
Read on Wu Blockchain Story page
South Korea's ruling party is formally seeking a delay of crypto taxation, with a two-year postponement under discussion. The party wants a digital-asset legal framework enacted before any tax applies. The legal start date is still January 1, 2027, so traders should watch for the final legislative decision.
Read on The Defiant Story page
TD Cowen says the Democratic sweep of Congress makes a crypto-backed CLARITY Act market structure bill effectively impossible for the next two years, and may rule out any version the industry would support. Analyst Jaret Seiberg called the outcome negative for crypto sectors. He still expects the SEC and CFTC to keep pushing deregulatory agendas, including on crypto, prediction markets and perps.
Read on Bitcoin Magazine Story page
Block, the payments company led by Jack Dorsey, faces a proposed $764 million settlement with the DOJ to resolve a federal anti-money-laundering investigation. Its quarterly bitcoin gross profit roughly halved as lower Cash App trading fees cut revenue. The legal payout and weaker bitcoin trading income matter to traders watching how crypto-linked fintechs are handling compliance and earnings pressure.
Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin plans to reopen in view-only mode on November 9 after a hack. The exchange says company funds will replace affected assets, while withdrawals and trading remain pending security clearance. Traders should watch for a full restart timeline and any further security issues.
Read on The Defiant Story page
Binance says it has replenished about 98% of the assets stolen in a recent security incident, with the company covering the losses from its own resources rather than users. It has already set aside more than 100% of the funds needed and is buying the remaining, less liquid tokens through market and OTC channels. Traders should note the remaining 2% will be slower to complete, and the update includes a new proof-of-reserves snapshot.
Former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown defeated Jon Husted, a result that is a setback for Fairshake, the crypto political action committee that backed Husted's campaign. The snippet is thin, so the wider market impact is unclear, but the outcome matters for future crypto-friendly legislation and industry lobbying in the Senate.
Santiment data shows the number of XRP wallets holding at least 1 million tokens hit a 2026 high even as price weakened. The firm reads this as accumulation during a dip, though it says stronger confirmation needs a sustained price recovery. Traders may treat rising large-holder counts as a possible early signal, not proof of a turn.
Read on Bitcoin.com News Story page
A federal judge denied an emergency request to halt stock perpetual futures trading on Kalshi, Coinbase Derivatives and Bitnomial, though she found the challengers likely to show the CFTC overstepped its authority. The plaintiff is a New York nonprofit whose members include Cboe, Citadel Securities and Healthy Markets. The ruling leaves the products trading for now but signals legal risk to the CFTC's approach, which matters for traders using these venues.
Read on Bitcoin Magazine Story page
Block, the Cash App and Square operator, booked $764 million against a planned three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department over anti-money laundering controls under the Bank Secrecy Act. No final deal is signed and a court must still approve it. The filing says the cost could exceed the accrued amount, so traders tracking fintech compliance risk may watch for the final terms.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the reelection race for House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill was too close to call. The outcome matters for crypto because Hill leads the committee that writes digital-asset legislation, and a House flip could change the direction of that agenda.
Bitcoin Core developer Matt Corallo flagged a severe Linux kernel flaw, CVE-2026-98432, with a CVSS score of 9.8, and Lightning Labs shipped an LND mitigation. Peter Todd advised operators running LND on Linux with open ports to shut nodes down until patched. The risk to Lightning node operators and infrastructure makes this a notable security story for traders.
Read on Bitcoin Magazine Story page
Stripe is opening a public preview that lets US businesses send stablecoins to wallets in more than 160 markets, with USDC supported and Open USD also included. Funds come from a Treasury balance, and businesses in New York are excluded. The move expands stablecoin payment rails for enterprises, which is a constructive signal for USDC adoption.
Read on The Defiant Story page
Blast has shut down its Layer 2 network and is directing users to a recovery site. DefiLlama data shows bridge assets at about $6.51 million, roughly 84% below the level reported on Oct. 26. Traders should view the drop in bridged liquidity as a sign of users pulling funds from the chain.
Read on The Defiant Story page
An opinion piece from the Blockchain Association argues that the incoming Congress still needs to write clear, lasting rules for digital assets. It frames the unfinished legislative work as a priority after the recent election. For traders, it signals that US crypto rulemaking remains open but offers no concrete new action.
BitGo has launched Global Markets, a new institutional trading and financial solutions unit. It is led by Pete Janney, a former NYDIG executive. The move expands BitGo's institutional offering, which may matter to traders watching custody and prime brokerage providers.
The Second Circuit declined to grant Coinbase and Kalshi interim protection from state enforcement against prediction markets in Connecticut and New York. The order does not force trading to stop or existing positions to close. Traders should watch this legal fight, since it could shape how prediction markets operate across states.
Read on The Defiant Story page
CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said perpetual futures on individual stocks can begin trading on designated contract markets that are also registered with the SEC for security futures. The contracts were deemed approved as security futures products under CFTC rules and remain subject to both agencies' frameworks. No exchanges or listing dates were named, so the practical impact is still pending for traders.
The Zcash grants committee withdrew its proposal to redirect 98,000 ZEC toward future mining rewards after community backlash. Competing plans remain on the table, either cutting off committee funding or keeping the existing grants system. Zcash is not in the tracked asset list, so no tracked symbol is tagged.
Bitcoin dipped to about $75,740 overnight during U.S. midterm returns, then recovered to roughly $77,000. The political shift toward Democrats in Congress weighed on stock futures and crypto alike. Traders are watching whether the election-driven pressure on risk assets persists, since regulatory expectations for crypto may shift with the new Congress.
Read on Bitcoin.com News Story page
US midterm results leaned Democratic, with Kalshi pricing Democratic Senate odds near 90% and House odds at 97%. Bitcoin edged lower and S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures fell about 0.5% to 0.6%. Traders worry a Democratic sweep could limit data center growth and weigh on AI stocks.
Trader James Wynn reopened a 40x leveraged short on 1.256 BTC, about $96K in size, days after being liquidated. His liquidation price is $78,227.92, so the position is very close to the market and could be forced out on a modest rally.
Read on Lookonchain Story page
SEC staff added three FAQ answers on Nov. 2 saying unaffiliated token holders voting through a network's governance generally are not a controlling 'group' under the agency's digital commodity framework. The answers also affect how the staff's buyback guidance applies, which was narrowed on Sept. 28 to systems with no central party. The clarification matters for token issuers and governance designs.
Aave and Lido reportedly lost about $1.7 billion in DeFi capital after the Binance hack, with stablecoin contraction visible before the breach. Aave temporarily froze activity, showing that collateralized loans can coexist with a shortage of withdrawal liquidity. Traders should watch for further outflows and liquidity stress across lending protocols.
Read on CryptoSlate Story page
Binance's hot-wallet hack on October 29, 2026 involved about $6.34 billion in assets. Ilya Lichtenstein compared its tactics to North Korean operations, and the FBI reportedly tied the breach to the TraderTraitor group, though North Korea's role is not confirmed. The scale of the theft and the exchange security concerns are a risk factor for traders.
Read on The Cryptonomist Story page
Russia plans to start regulated crypto trading on December 1, with state-linked giants such as Sberbank and the Moscow Exchange expected to lead. Smaller firms reportedly struggle with strict new requirements, and foreign platforms are exiting the market. The move is a notable regulatory development for the market, though the snippet gives no price-related details.
Read on Cryptopolitan Story page
US stocks rallied sharply, with the Dow up about 1,236 points (2.4%) after Democrats won both the House and Senate and Trump accepted the midterm results. The easing of political uncertainty is a risk-on signal for markets. Traders often watch such equity moves as a cue for crypto, which had been weighed down by election jitters.
Read on The Cryptonomist Story page
The Second Circuit declined to pause state enforcement actions against Kalshi and Coinbase while their appeals proceed, so New York and Connecticut regulators can keep pursuing them. The three-judge panel gave a brief order without detailed reasoning. The ruling matters for traders because it signals prediction-market and crypto-platform exposure to state regulators during the appeal process.