Flash News

TREE NEWS update: New Gonow Recreational Vehicles plunged more than 33% at the close on Oct. 27 after Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission flagged its highly concentrated shareholding, capping a year in which the stock had risen nearly 15-fold at its peak. The SFC has now publicly identified 17 Hong Kong-listed companies with concentrated ownership this year, where locked-up shares exceed 90% and thin free floats fuel sharp swings. HKEX said public float supervision and SFC concentration warnings are separate regulatory regimes.

TREE NEWS update: India’s foreign-exchange enforcement agency searched four premises in Bengaluru and Madhya Pradesh on Oct. 27 over more than ₹5,000 crore in crypto transfers it says crossed India’s borders without authorization. Binance has emerged in the probe as a route for foreign payouts.

TREE NEWS update: KuCoin has withdrawn all products from users in Russia and Belarus, effective immediately, without naming the rule behind the cutoff. The same day, Russia’s central bank said registered crypto exchange operators have 90 days to join a newly approved self-regulator. The exchange’s notice gave no further explanation for the move.

TREE NEWS update: China’s draft anti-cross-border corruption law will receive its second reading at the 25th session of the 14th National People’s Congress Standing Committee. Huang Haihua, spokesperson for the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission, said the revised draft adds provisions to strengthen protection of state secrets, work secrets, trade secrets, personal information and personal privacy.

TREE NEWS update: Israel has extradited Alexander Block, a suspect in the August 2022 Nomad bridge hack, after the country’s Supreme Court rejected his defense that a code bug justified the exploit. Block now faces an eight-count federal indictment in California over the incident. The Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for his transfer to US custody.

TREE NEWS update: The SEC filed a complaint alleging BG Wealth and DSJ Exchange ran a $130 million crypto scheme that used the agency’s own databases to appear registered, pointing investors to their own SEC filings and fake certificates bearing the agency’s seal. The complaint says the firms then blocked withdrawals and demanded a “tax” to unlock accounts.

TREE NEWS reports: Investigators have tied the $6.3 billion Binance hack to North Korea. The breach compromised hot-wallet signing infrastructure, and investigators are tracing where the funds went. The incident is the largest crypto hack on record.

TREE NEWS update: CFTC Chair Michael Selig said the record $6.4 billion Binance hack shows why offshore exchanges should register with the CFTC and adopt U.S.-grade cybersecurity standards. Selig pointed to the theft as evidence that unregistered venues operating outside U.S. oversight pose systemic risks to investors.

TREE NEWS update: President Trump said his administration is looking into the $6.3 billion hack of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, as calls grow for legislation. The remarks follow the massive breach, which has intensified pressure on policymakers to advance crypto rules.

TREE NEWS reports: Polymarket is reviewing dozens of new wallets that placed well-timed bets on Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party shortly before polls closed in Israel’s Oct. 27 election, with some accounts having already cashed out over $100,000 combined. Hundreds of new accounts backed the Israeli prime minister and his party ahead of the vote.

TREE NEWS update: The Securities and Exchange Commission issued exemptive relief on inter-affiliate and certain non-U.S. repo transactions, advancing the move toward central clearing of U.S. Treasury securities. The relief is aimed at helping broker-dealers and other market participants meet Treasury clearing requirements. The SEC did not disclose further terms of the exemption.

TREE NEWS update: Raymond and Isiah Garcia of Texas were sentenced to 15 years in prison for holding a Minnesota family at gunpoint for more than nine hours and forcing the father to transfer over $8 million in crypto. The case is among the clearest prosecutions yet of a “wrench attack,” in which physical violence is used to extract digital assets.

TREE NEWS update: Meta Platforms Inc has reached a settlement with two plaintiffs who were scheduled to appear in a Los Angeles court next week in a social media addiction case. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The agreement removes the two plaintiffs from the upcoming trial, though the case had been set to proceed against the company.

TREE NEWS update: Binance is working with the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service to investigate a theft involving $6.4 billion, the exchange said. Stablecoin issuer Circle said it has frozen more than $800 million in USDC linked to the incident and is cooperating with law enforcement. Tether also froze more than 1.567 billion USDT tied to the case.

TREE NEWS update: Binance has set aside $6.34 billion to cover losses from a breach, with the FBI and Secret Service now working alongside the exchange as investigators trace the stolen funds. Circle has frozen $823 million tied to the incident. The involvement of two U.S. federal agencies marks a significant escalation in the investigation into the hack.

TREE NEWS reports: Russian-controlled Serbian oil company NIS has received a new US sanctions waiver valid until December 11, Serbia’s state broadcaster RTS reported Friday. The waiver allows NIS, which operates Serbia’s only refinery, to continue importing crude oil while Russia sells its majority stake in the company to Hungarian energy firm MOL.

TREE NEWS update: Binance co-founder and co-CEO He Yi said the platform’s hot-wallet hack affected about $6.3 billion in assets, of which roughly $3 billion has been frozen with industry help, leaving a net exposure of just over $3 billion — more than 2% of Binance user assets and public reserves. The exchange expects to restore withdrawals within 42 hours and will publish a detailed technical security audit report.

TREE NEWS reports: Bitcoin’s quantum security risk is increasingly being framed as an economic problem, alongside a series of industry developments. Ripple has secured a US banking charter, while USDC is expanding its presence in Europe. VanEck has also added Bitcoin to a new exchange-traded fund.

TREE NEWS update: Gate founder and CEO Lin Han called for the crypto industry to immediately form a security alliance with unified security standards, intrusion detection protocols and emergency response mechanisms, citing a Binance incident involving about $6.3 billion in losses. Gate also proposed a split-key vault in which private keys are distributed among the user, Gate and a recovery partner, with funds movable only if at least two parties are compromised, and a 48-hour withdrawal delay so users can freeze funds. Gate said it has flagged the relevant hacker addresses and will freeze illicit funds transferred to its platform.