Top Stories This Morning: Binance Customers Withdrew $3.6 Billion After the Hack; Kioxia Plummets

Customers of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, withdrew $3.64 billion following a cyberattack. Bitcoin, which had fallen in price as a result, rebounded by about 1% on Monday to $78,300. Shares of Japanese memory chip maker Kioxia plummeted 17% after the company released a forecast that disappointed investors. Read about these and other topics in our roundup of key events as of the morning of November 2.

Customers of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange withdrew $3.64 billion, or 2.1% of its assets, following a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of $6.3 billion last week, the exchange reported. The exchange stated that the outflow of funds is stabilizing and that 95% of the stolen assets have already been reimbursed at its own expense. At the same time, according to data from the crypto analytics platform DefiLlama, the outflow was higher, reaching $5.81 billion. Binance did not comment on this information.

Bitcoin rose by about 1% on Monday, to $78,300. Since the Binance hack, the cryptocurrency has lost about 4%. Analysts attribute its resilience to the exchange’s promise to fully reimburse customers for their losses, according to Bloomberg. Market participants viewed the hack as an operational glitch rather than a systemic crisis, experts note. Following the collapse of FTX in 2022, Bitcoin lost 19% in three days, the agency noted.

Shares of Japanese memory chip maker Kioxia plummeted 17% following the release of a cautious forecast, despite continued strong demand for chips used in artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to Business Insider. Kioxia was one of the main beneficiaries of the AI infrastructure boom on the stock market: in the first half of the year, its stock price rose by more than 750%.

The company’s revenue and operating profit forecasts for the current quarter fell short of consensus estimates. Kioxia attributed this, in part, to delays in shipments of data center storage systems, which will cause some of the expected sales to be pushed into the next quarter. At the same time, the chipmaker expects the memory shortage to persist into 2027: the entire production volume planned for this year has already been sold out, and long-term agreements cover more than half of the expected supply volume for 2028.

The sell-off put pressure on the Japanese stock market: the Nikkei 225 index briefly fell 1% on Monday.

Gold prices rose 1.1% on Monday, reaching nearly $3,915 per ounce, after falling 3.7% on Friday, according to Bloomberg. October was the worst month for the metal since 2008. The rise was driven by falling oil prices, which eased inflation concerns, and buying by investors following the sell-off.

At the same time, gold remains under pressure due to a sell-off in tech stocks and fears of an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, the agency notes. To restore a more neutral short-term outlook, prices need to rise back above $4,000 per ounce, according to Saxo Bank analyst Ole Slot Hansen.

Asian stock markets turned higher on Monday ahead of Apple’s quarterly earnings report, scheduled for release on Monday, according to Reuters. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3%, South Korea’s Kospi rose 2.6%, and China’s CSI 300 rose 1.3%. Investors are hoping that Apple’s results will ease concerns about tech companies’ massive spending on AI, the agency reports.

Futures on U.S. stock indices are also rising following Friday's plunge. Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.9%, S&P 500 futures rose 0.5%, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 0.4%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor