Bankless

A blue wave and a black swan. Democrats sweep Congress, markets whipsaw into a $2 trillion selloff, and Bitcoin holds its 50-week moving average through the biggest heist in history: $6 billion stolen from Binance. Ryan and David break down how North Korea pulled it off, how a French bank got robbed with crypto as the getaway car, Ethereum's December 2028 quantum-proof deadline from DevCon, and Coinbase insiders' new sell plans.

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:57 Blue Wave: Democrats Sweep Congress
https://x.com/DCinvestor/status/2117789052573544873

3:33 $2 Trillion Erased: AI Bubble Popping?
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2118362154558779411
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HWX6J1hXwAAXczz?format=jpg&name=medium

7:41 Bitcoin Holds the 50-Week: Early Bull Intact?

10:59 NEAR AI Red
https://near.ai/blog/the-right-to-run

11:44 Will the Dems Come for Crypto?
https://x.com/0xGrimes/status/2111584181562290268
https://x.com/caprioleio/status/2118125380741795929
https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2118006193276805427
https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2118041922011021418
https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2118080207664062720
https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2118043617650491467

21:11 Binance Hack: The $6B Heist, 7 Days Later
https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber/alerts/2026/north-korea-responsible-for-6-billion-binance-attack
https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2116030284261179538
https://www.binance.com/en/proof-of-reserves
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/11/03/binance-s-usd6-3-billion-hack-began-with-a-fake-job-interview-exchange-says
https://x.com/binance/status/2117626126214504729
https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2117650872603955542

27:26 THORChain & the Laundering Fight
https://x.com/FBICyberBranch/status/2116660730745299426
https://thedefiant.io/podcasts-and-videos/podcast/thorchain-refused-to-block-the-usd387m-bitget-hacker-here-s-why-or-chad-barraford

32:49 North Korea: Too Close to the Sun?
https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-11-02-kim-jong-un-sister-rejects-fbi-claims-linking-north-korea-binance-hack-432344

35:45 Polygon's Hard Fork & the Validator Bribe
https://forum.polygon.technology/t/pip-proposal-recovery-of-funds-held-in-blocked-addresses-following-the-polymarket-and-binance-incidents/22497

38:25 How to Rob a Bank: Crypto Was the Getaway Car
https://x.com/gregory_raymond/status/2117864901108432999
https://x.com/Jrag0x/status/2117878442309906695

48:37 DevCon 8: Ethereum Post-Quantum by 2028
https://x.com/EFDevcon/status/2117497506007576631
https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/2117717427920498698

51:17 The Ethereum Economic Zone
https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/ethereum-economic-zone-unveils-three-cross-chain-breakthroughs-at-devcon

52:57 L2Beat Becomes ETHBeat
https://x.com/ethbeat_org/status/2117913893796225035
https://ethbeat.org/crops

54:08 Vitalik's Keynote Controversy
https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/2117500382977102044
https://x.com/gakonst/status/2117668817082155157
https://x.com/uttam_singhk/status/2117673754574651760
https://x.com/fede_intern/status/2117993844159438993

58:58 Coinbase Earnings & Armstrong's Sell Plan
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/10/30/coinbase-coin-q3-2026-earnings-call-transcript/
https://thedefiant.io/news/cefi/coinbase-ceo-armstrong-adopts-plan-to-sell-up-to-1-31-billion-in-shares

1:02:53 STRC Back at $100
https://x.com/Strategy/status/2118036238741688626

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Can Ethereum become private without giving anyone a master key? Aztec co-founder Zac Williamson joins David Hoffman to discuss the race to build private smart contracts, why transparent blockchains struggle with tokenized finance, and how ZK Passport could bring identity checks onchain without exposing personal data.

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🛡️VIZOR | THE WALLET ZCASH DEVS USE
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🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near2026

🌍 RIPIO | LOCAL CURRENCIES, ONCHAIN
https://bankless.cc/ripio

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 The Race for Private Ethereum
07:21 Why Crypto Still Isn't Private
15:01 ZK Passport and Private Identity
21:29 AI-Powered Attacks and Trustless Infrastructure
29:44 Private DeFi and Institutional Adoption
35:42 Aztec Tokenomics, MEV, and Transaction Costs
40:52 Aztec Tierra and the 2027 Roadmap
43:43 Getting Started With Aztec

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RESOURCES

Zac Williamson
https://x.com/Zac_Aztec

Aztec Network
https://aztec.network

ZK.money
https://zk.money

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What would it take for private money to work at global scale? Zcash co-founder Sean Bowe and ZK researcher Dev join David Hoffman to unpack the next chapter of Zcash, from Tachyon's ambitious scaling roadmap to the challenge of building private wallets that actually work.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
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🌍 RIPIO | LOCAL CURRENCIES, ONCHAIN
https://bankless.cc/ripio

🛡️VIZOR | THE WALLET ZCASH DEVS USE
https://bankless.cc/vizor

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Why Zcash Matters Now
07:53 AI Makes Privacy Urgent
11:20 The Zcash Development Roadmap
17:33 Privacy Without Compromises
25:26 Scaling Zcash With Tachyon
39:42 Private Wallets and Proof of Work
41:06 Zcash's Quantum Defense Roadmap
1:00:53 AI Threats and Formal Verification
1:12:53 Security Through Multiple Assumptions
1:19:37 Why Payments Come First
1:25:54 Funding Proof-of-Work Security
1:29:34 Governance and Coinholder Voting
1:34:53 ZEC Price and Protocol Threats

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RESOURCES

Sean Bowe
https://x.com/ebfull

Dev Ojha
https://x.com/zkDragon

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Venice’s Head of Strategy, Jon joins David for the October $VVV community call to unpack Venice crossing 5M users and 1T daily tokens, $1M+ in monthly $VVV burns, the DeepSeek-powered growth surge, accelerating AI video demand, the new $VVV ETP, private AI in an era of rising data breaches, and what comes next.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:21 September AI Update
2:12 Token Growth Surge
8:36 Emissions and Diem Supply
16:10 Burn Mechanics Explained
23:40 OpenAI Privacy Controversy
32:00 Data Retention Warnings
35:52 Anthropic's Retention Shift
39:24 Privacy Boosts Venice
43:03 Minds and Model Combinations
52:48 Staking and Burn Questions
55:47 Data Center and Near
59:37 Lumara Film Festival
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Binance was hit by a $6 billion hack. What happens when the stolen crypto starts moving? TRM Labs' Ari Redbord joins David Hoffman to unpack the frantic first hours of the response, how stablecoin issuers froze billions, and the clues pointing investigators toward North Korea.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

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🌍 RIPIO | LOCAL CURRENCIES, ONCHAIN
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🛡️VIZOR | THE WALLET ZCASH DEVS USE
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TIMESTAMPS

00:00 The $6B Binance Hack
01:38 Inside TRM's War Room
03:29 Freezing Billions and Tracking Funds
08:51 Law Enforcement and Attack Clues
13:50 Why North Korea Is Different
21:26 The Regulatory Fallout for Crypto
24:53 AI and the Next Cyber Threat
27:43 Securing Crypto After the Attack

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RESOURCES

Ari Redbord
https://x.com/ARedbord

TRM Labs
https://www.trmlabs.com/

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures