According to Binance's own statement, unauthorised withdrawals were made after a DevOps engineer's laptop was compromised; the estimated impact is about $6.3 billion. No private keys were leaked, and the exchange says user funds are covered. Circle froze $800 million and Tether $1.5 billion.
我们的个人看法: Anyone keeping money on Binance cannot withdraw it for days. The other lesson: dollar-pegged cryptos (USDT, USDC) can be frozen by the issuing company at any time – this time it worked against the thieves, but it also means this money is not entirely yours.
我们的个人看法: When US interest rates are high, investors prefer to keep their money in safe dollars rather than in crypto. Two policymakers would even raise rates – if that happens in December, it usually weighs on crypto prices.
In ESMA's opinion, authorised providers may not offer purchase, trading or promotion of stablecoins that do not comply with MiCA; existing holdings must be resolved by 8 January 2027 at the latest (sale, conversion, withdrawal).
我们的个人看法: If you hold USDT on an EU exchange (e.g. Bitpanda, Coinbase EU), you must sell or convert it by 8 January, because the exchange may no longer trade it afterwards. Worth checking your account now.
Responding to the Commission's consultation, ESMA proposes tighter limits on promoting crypto-assets (especially via influencers), cost transparency for staking and lending services, and a new regulated service for DeFi access.
我们的个人看法: Crypto advertising will get stricter (influencers, "guaranteed return" promises), and the costs of interest-bearing crypto services will become more transparent. This protects small investors; large banks and investment funds can also start using crypto technology, which could bring much more money into this market.