Binance Reopens Withdrawals as FBI Names North Korea's Hackers and Bitcoin Fights $77K

Welcome to Chain Reaction, by Capital Copilot, your daily dose of the latest in cryptocurrency news, market insights, and blockchain trends. Let's get started! Binance is finally letting customers withdraw funds again, the FBI has put an official name on who robbed the exchange, and Bitcoin is holding just under seventy-eight thousand dollars while traders quietly rebuild the leverage that got wiped out days ago. Let's start with Binance. Withdrawals reopened this morning in phases, with Bitcoin leading the pack alongside Ethereum, Solana, and thirteen other networks. The exchange says it has now replaced ninety-five percent of the six point three billion dollars stolen, up from ninety percent reported yesterday, with the remaining five percent in harder-to-source tokens being bought on the open market. Binance is promising a full proof-of-reserves audit soon. But the investigation just got official. The FBI, alongside the Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, formally confirmed that TraderTraitor, a unit of North Korea's Lazarus Group, carried out the attack. Federal agencies identified around six hundred Ethereum addresses, fewer than twenty Bitcoin addresses, and one Solana address tied to the stolen funds, and they're urging DeFi platforms, bridges, and node operators to block them outright. Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin warns the attackers are already cycling through thousands of addresses, a number he expects to grow into the tens of thousands as laundering continues. Therefore, Bitcoin's recovery looks shakier than the price action suggests. It's sitting near seventy-seven thousand eight hundred dollars, Ethereum around two thousand two hundred sixty-eight dollars, and XRP near one dollar twenty-five. But spot Bitcoin ETFs just logged six hundred forty-three million dollars in single-day outflows, wiping out the week's gains. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's aggregate open interest climbed three percent to twenty-eight billion dollars, meaning traders are rebuilding leveraged bets even as institutions pull cash out. That sets up a nervous watch on Friday's jobs report. Switching gears, Ripple's payment volume hit sixteen trillion dollars for the year, with BNY Mellon, Robinhood, and Coinbase all onboarding RLUSD. But XRP itself barely moved, up just two percent on the week, because most of that volume runs through Ripple's dollar-pegged stablecoin, not the token itself. Elsewhere, Vitalik Buterin landed in Mumbai ahead of Devcon, running November third through sixth. And a quieter risk is building in traditional finance: the Federal Reserve reports banks are owed three hundred forty-nine billion dollars by private credit funds, some of which may not be collecting real cash from borrowers, a mismatch that could eventually force asset sales, including crypto. Now, Arcade Rewind. Picking up after Pitfall in 1982, our next stop is 1983. Remember when Mario decided to stop jumping on barrels and actually had to save someone? That was Mario Bros in the arcade, and it changed everything. It introduced cooperative two-player gameplay, Luigi's solo debut, and the plumbing theme that would define Nintendo for decades. That's a wrap for today's edition of Chain Reaction by Capital Copilot. We hope you're feeling more informed and ready to navigate the cryptoverse. Until next time, keep your digital wallets ready!