Dubai gained a new exchange chief this week. Pyongyang gained a new denial. NEAR's voters cut their own token supply, and Lisk shut its chain down to sell treasury software instead. Two bitcoin treasuries grew while a third company's token burn went quiet. A Brazilian exchange absorbed a breach of its own, days after Binance's $6.3 billion theft led every crypto headline. Ten stories from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3, 2026, follow.
North Korea Denies the FBI's Finding
Pyongyang answered Washington on Nov. 39. Kim Yo Jong is North Korea's top voice abroad. She called the FBI's finding "a grave political provocation" and denied any hand in Binance's theft. The FBI had flagged 628 wallet addresses tied to the theft on Nov. 1, 2026, in three chains10. Vasily Vidmanov reads the case differently. He runs investigations at the firm AMLBot. “The evidence supporting the DPRK attribution is cumulative and goes well beyond speculation,” Vidmanov said. A single denial answers one line. It leaves 628 addresses standing.
MultiBank Names a New Exchange Chief
Dubai's MultiBank Group picked a familiar face for a new seat1. Mohammed Al Hakim joins as vice chairman of the $32 billion group. He also becomes chief executive of MB.io, its crypto exchange arm. Al Hakim arrives from Crypto.com, where he led the UAE and Bahrain business. “My priority will be to translate the Group's international ambitions into commercial results, bring MB.io to new markets and build MultiBank Exchange's institutional reach,” Al Hakim said. Naser Taher, MultiBank's founder and chairman, frames the hire as a turning point. “Mohammed's appointment represents an important step in our strategy to build a globally integrated financial ecosystem,” Taher said. Al Hakim's arrival lands the same week MultiBank launched MultiBank Exchange, a new engine built for big trades.
NEAR's Voters Cut Their Own Supply
NEAR Protocol's own holders voted against easy money2. The House of Stake is NEAR's own voting body. It approved HSP-029 on Nov. 2 with 99.96% support. That vote cuts NEAR's top yearly token issuance from 2.5% to 1.6%, over 24 months. A 90-day wait comes first. After that, the cap falls a small step every month. Fewer new tokens means a smaller share for every holder to split. The plan should keep roughly 11.8 million NEAR out of supply over two years. Staking pay drifts lower too, from near 5.27% down to 3.37% once the new cap takes hold.
NEAR's Issuance Cap Falls From 2.5% to 1.6% After Its Nov. 2, 2026 Vote
NEAR Protocol's annual issuance cap and staking yield, before and after its Nov. 2 vote
- Before the Nov. 2 vote
- Once HSP-029 fully phases in
Source: FinanceFeeds [2].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Before the Nov. 2 vote | Once HSP-029 fully phases in |
|---|---|---|
| Annual issuance cap | 2.5% | 1.6% |
| Gross staking yield | 5.27% | 3.37% |
Lisk Shuts Its Chain to Sell Software
A ten-year-old blockchain chose finance software over a tenth birthday3. Lisk shut its Ethereum layer-2 network down on Nov. 2, a decade after it launched. Max Kordek, Lisk's founder, built a replacement instead of a successor chain. “We took ten years of being close to this problem, on the outside and on the inside, and we built the modern finance platform that we and the companies around us actually need,” Kordek wrote. He described the shift bluntly: "A workaround, no matter how good, is still just a workaround." The new platform manages accounts, payments and approvals for business finance teams across borders. Projects still building on the old chain can migrate to Celo.
Strive Closes the Gap on Strategy
A smaller bitcoin treasury kept buying this week4. Strive purchased 124 bitcoin between Oct. 24 and Oct. 30, 2026, for about $10 million. Its total reached 43,124 bitcoin, fourth among public companies and closing in on third place. Strategy still leads every public holder with 849,327 bitcoin. Strive funded part of the purchase through a preferred stock program it used for the first time this round. Chief executive Matt Cole has said openly that he wants Strive to pass its nearest rivals by year's end.
Strategy Holds Almost 20 Times More Bitcoin Than Strive, as of Oct. 30, 2026
Bitcoin held by Strategy and Strive, the two public companies racing for the top treasury spots
- Strive: 43,124 BTC
- Strategy: 849,327 BTC
Sources: The Block [4]; The Block [5].
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Strategy | 849,327 BTC | The largest public bitcoin holder |
| Strive | 43,124 BTC | Fourth-largest, closing the gap |
Strategy Buys More Bitcoin, Dilution and All
The largest bitcoin treasury grew during its own leadership shakeup5. Strategy bought 811 bitcoin between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1 for $65.5 million, an average of $80,846 each. The purchase came days after finance chief Andrew Kang announced his exit on Oct. 26. Its total treasury reached 849,327 bitcoin, bought for $64.1 billion since the company started. New stock sales funded the purchase and outpaced it. Bitcoin held per diluted share slipped roughly 0.17% last week, even as the pile grew larger.
Mercado Bitcoin Absorbs a Second Breach
Brazil's largest crypto exchange paused its own operations on Nov. 27. Mercado Bitcoin suspended deposits and withdrawals after spotting a security incident, and said it contained the breach within hours. Blockchain security firms traced more than $40 million in suspicious transfers across ten networks. Tether, Circle, Paxos and Chainalysis helped freeze $11 million of it. Mercado Bitcoin pledged to absorb the loss itself, promising customers their own funds would stay untouched.
PhotonPay Raises $40 Million for Stablecoin Rails
A Hong Kong payments firm found fresh money for an old problem6. PhotonPay closed a $40 million Series C round led by Blockchain Capital, with SBI Group and IDG Capital joining. The company issued 4.4 million cards over the past year, up 275%, on a stablecoin-based platform it calls its Financial Operating System. That new money grows stablecoin-to-cash payments, card issuing and tools for AI agents that need their own spending caps. PhotonPay now serves more than 100 business partners on its platform.
Ark Invest Buys the Dip
Cathie Wood's funds bought crypto stocks while the market sold them8. Ark Invest purchased $3.4 million in Coinbase shares on Nov. 2, plus $2.6 million in Circle and $645,820 in Robinhood. All three stocks closed lower that day. Ark also sold $2.3 million of Bullish as that stock fell 5.6%. The trades read as a bet on a short dip, rather than a deeper break in the business.
Binance Skips Its Token Burn
A three-and-a-half-year streak broke quietly11. Binance has bought back and burned Luna Classic trading fees nearly every month since March 2023. November's burn has yet to arrive, the first miss since the program started. Binance has offered zero explanation. Some traders link the pause to last week's hack and the exchange's scramble to secure its wallets.
What to watch
Charges from the Department of Justice would matter most. They turned blockchain tracing into courtroom evidence once before, after the Bybit theft. NEAR's staking yield over the next two years will show whether HSP-029 changes validator behavior. Binance's Luna Classic address is worth a second look once the delayed burn finally lands. Strive's next purchase could decide whether it passes Strategy's nearest public rival for second place before the year ends.
Sources
- "Emirati Mohammed Al Hakim Appointed Vice Chairman of MultiBank Group, Valued at US$32 Billion, and CEO of MB.io," Business Wire, Nov. 2, 2026, https://www.financialcontent.com/article/bizwire-2026-11-2-emirati-mohammed-al-hakim-appointed-vice-chairman-of-multibank-group-valued-at-us32-billion-and-ceo-of-mbio
- "NEAR Holders Vote to Cut Token Issuance Cap to 1.6%," FinanceFeeds, Nov. 2, 2026, https://financefeeds.com/near-governance-approves-token-issuance-cut/
- Max Kordek, "Lisk is entering a new chapter," post on X, Aug. 25, 2026, https://x.com/maxkordek/status/2092245224193937495
- "Strive inches closer to becoming second-largest public bitcoin holder after latest $10 million buy," The Block, Nov. 2, 2026, https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-11-02-strive-inches-closer-second-largest-public-bitcoin-holder-10-million-buy-432312
- "'We found room for even more orange': Michael Saylor's Strategy scoops up another 811 bitcoin for $65.5 million," The Block, Nov. 2, 2026, https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-11-02-we-found-room-for-even-more-orange-michael-saylor-strategy-bitcoin-btc-432275
- "PhotonPay secures $40m Series C to expand global payment," IBS Intelligence, Oct. 30, 2026, https://ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/photonpay-secures-40m-series-c-to-expand-global-payment/
- "Mercado Bitcoin Says It Will Absorb $40 Million Loss From Hack," Bloomberg, Nov. 2, 2026, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-02/mercado-bitcoin-says-it-will-absorb-40-million-loss-from-hack
- "Ark Invest buys $3.4 million in Coinbase, adds Circle and Robinhood as stocks trade lower," The Block, Nov. 2, 2026, https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-11-02-ark-invest-buys-coinbase-circle-robinhood-432352
- "North Korea denies role in $6.4 billion Binance hack after FBI points to TraderTraitor," CoinDesk, Nov. 3, 2026, https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/11/03/north-korea-denies-role-in-usd6-4-billion-binance-hack-after-fbi-points-to-tradertraitor
- "FBI Flags Over 600 Addresses Tied to North Korea's Binance Heist," SecurityWeek, Nov. 2, 2026, https://www.securityweek.com/fbi-flags-over-600-addresses-tied-to-north-koreas-binance-heist/
- "Binance Misses Monthly Luna Classic Burn for First Time Since 2023," Decrypt, Nov. 3, 2026, https://decrypt.co/382401/binance-misses-monthly-luna-classic-burn-for-first-time-since-2023