Markets were rocked on October 30 by a double shock: a potentially record-breaking hack at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and a wave of earnings reports that deepened investor fears about massive AI spending at big tech. Bitcoin fell below $77,000 while Intel plunged more than 20% after hours.
Binance (Credits: CoinDesk)
Binance hack: estimated $5.9 billion to $6.3 billion
Binance suffered an estimated $5.9 billion to $6.3 billion hack in what could be crypto’s largest theft ever, according to reports citing blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The exchange said on its official X account that about $3 billion in assets had been frozen, and investigators linked the attack to North Korea. Binance blamed a potentially compromised employee laptop and pledged to cover all losses.
Deposits and withdrawals were temporarily suspended as the exchange investigated. Bitcoin dropped to as low as $77,646, its weakest level in six weeks, later trading just below $78,000. Ether slid to $2,238.76, a two-month low, while BNB — the token tied to the Binance ecosystem — fell more than 8% over 24 hours. Tether and Circle froze $2.38 billion in stablecoins in response, and rival exchange Coinbase also came under pressure.
Intel plunges 23%, AI spending fears grip tech
Corporate earnings remained strong on paper, but the mood darkened fast. Intel plunged about 23-25% after hours as weak fourth-quarter guidance overshadowed 21% revenue growth to $16.51 billion. Data center and AI revenue jumped 78%, but supply bottlenecks and PC weakness clouded the outlook — and Intel raised planned 2026 capital expenditure to $20 billion.
Amazon reported 12% revenue growth to $201.9 billion, with AWS sales surging 39% to $46 billion, but weak retail demand weighed on its fourth-quarter outlook. The company raised its 2026 capital spending forecast to $220 billion while annual free cash flow fell to negative $42.4 billion. Amazon shares slid about 7% after hours.
The unease spread. Alphabet fell roughly 12-13%, wiping out about $500 billion in market value as massive AI spending turned its cash flow negative. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped around 2%, Asian chipmakers slumped — Samsung fell over 5%, SK Hynix over 8% — and South Korea’s Kospi plunged past 5% intraday, at one point triggering a trading curb. Bonds surged toward their biggest monthly gain in nearly three years as investors fled to safety, with the 10-year US Treasury yield falling to about 4.91%.
As one analyst quoted by Reuters put it, the market is no longer questioning whether the AI buildout can be financed — it is increasingly questioning whether shareholders will earn an adequate return on the enormous capital being deployed.
Also Read: Bitcoin, Ether and XRP Selloff Wipes Out $1.5 Billion in Leveraged Crypto Bets After Binance Hack
Source: CoinDesk — read the full story there.
