Crypto firms and law enforcement are racing to recover more than $6 billion worth of cryptocurrency stolen from Binance before hackers manage to hide the funds.

The firms say they’re in a “cat and mouse game” against alleged North Korean hackers who are using a combination of crypto obfuscation techniques and professional global money laundering networks to turn their digital coins into fiat currency, according to experts who spoke to CNBC.

These moves underscore how hard it can be to recover the stolen funds after a crypto hack.

“Ultimately, they’re [hackers] trying to off-ramp it [crypto] to fiat. And that becomes the challenge, that’s sort of this race against time,” Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, one of the companies investigating the Binance hack, told CNBC on Friday.

Binance pledged to cover losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users.

Both TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the Binance hack to a North Korean state-backed hacking group called TraderTraitor, which has a history of crypto cyberattacks.

After the hack, several stablecoin issuers, including Circle, which issues USDC, and Tether, which issues USDT, moved to freeze the funds. Stablecoins are digital coins that represent a currency, such as the dollar, 1-to-1 and are backed by assets such as government bonds or fiat.

Binance estimates that around $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency has been frozen so far.

The issuers of the stablecoins could burn and reissue the tokens and potentially recover those losses. In this scenario, a company like Circle or Tether would effectively destroy the frozen stablecoins, making them inaccessible to hackers. They could reissue new stablecoins that could be held in a legal government entity and then given back to Binance.

The hackers were one step ahead. They quickly moved to sell USDT to market makers and borrow the cryptocurrency ether against the stablecoin, according to TRM Labs. Ether is harder to freeze, and the entity the hackers borrowed from would be left with the stolen stablecoin.

“The attackers knew that route would be closed to them and so got out ahead of that,” said Joe Hancock, a partner and head of cyber risk and complex investigations at law firm Mishcon de Reya.

Intel shares plummeted 29% on Friday, their worst day since the 1970s, after the chipmaker issued weaker-than-expected guidance due to a plant shutdown in Israel and ongoing softness in the PC market.

It’s a major setback for CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was hired in March 2025, and has since been on a campaign to revive the company after it missed out on the early years of the artificial intelligence boom.

Intel’s plunge is also a big hit to the Trump administration, which led the U.S. government into taking a 10% stake in the company over a year ago. While it’s still a profitable investment, the value of those holdings dropped by about $12 billion on Friday. Nvidia also took a big stake in Intel, and its stock dropped by about $6 billion in value.

Heading into Thursday’s earnings report, Intel shares were up about 150% this year, buoyed by demand for central processors, which are becoming critical to agentic AI workloads. Analysts at D.A. Davidson downgraded the stock to neutral from buy on Friday in a report titled, “Not fixed yet.”

“We understand the PC market is being impacted at the industry level,” the analysts wrote. “However it is hard to justify the current multiple when weakness is so significant.”

Amazon shares also sold off on Friday, slipping 1.4%, after the company reported a third-quarter miss on the top and bottom line while maintaining its capital expenditure forecast for 2026 of $220 billion. Amazon also reported negative free cash flow for the second consecutive quarter, and a big increase from the previous period.

The Nasdaq Composite slid 2.9%, capping off a week of rough tech earnings. Alphabet on Thursday suffered its worst day on record, plunging more than 12%. The stock fell again on Friday.

Other semiconductor names also notched declines. Chip giant Nvidia fell 4%, while Broadcom dropped more than 5% and mobile chipmaker Qualcomm tumbled 11%.

For Intel, the disappointing forecast reflects a PC market that’s getting hammered due to soaring costs for memory and other components. Global PC shipments declined 4% in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research.

Intel said it expects adjusted earnings per share of 25 cents this quarter on revenue between $15 billion and $16 billion. Analysts were expecting revenue of $17.1 billion and EPS of 43 cents, according to…

Changpeng Zhao, the cofounder and former CEO of Binance, asked Elon Musk not to “troll” the company on Friday and instead “show some support” after the SpaceX CEO appeared to mock the embattled cryptocurrency exchange in a series of social media posts.

After learning the world’s largest crypto exchange had been hit by a $6.3 billion hack late Thursday, Musk posted several emojis, ranging from laughing to grimacing, on X.

In response, Zhao reminded the SpaceX and Tesla CEO of Binance’s equity stake in Musk’s businesses.

Binance’s SpaceX stake, which stems from an earlier investment in what was then-Twitter, is worth more than $1 billion, Zhao said.

That’s a tiny fraction of SpaceX’s roughly $2 trillion valuation.

“Elon, have a lot of respect for you, but bad time to troll. Please stop,” Zhao wrote. “Our SPCX shares (from our $500m investment in your Twitter takeover) are worth more than a billion. Would appreciate if you show a little support. Thanks!”

It’s not the first time the pair has sparred online.

In Nov. 2021, Binance suspended Dogecoin withdrawals because of a wallet glitch, a measure Musk called “shady”. In reply, Zhao highlighted a major Tesla recall of almost 12,000 U.S. vehicles due to software glitches and hardware issues. 

Binance froze all withdrawals and deposits after the hack, which investigators suspect to be the work of North Korean state-sponsored hacking unit TraderTraitor. It has since restored deposits.

Around $3 billion in cryptocurrency assets have been frozen so far.

Correction: Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao asked Elon Musk to “show some support.” A previous headline mischaracterized the exchange.

Within 24 hours of the U.S. and Israel going to war with Iran, Tehran responded with a wave of attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz to cut off one of the world’s main sources of crude oil. 

Iran’s campaign was initially successful, with crude exports plunging nearly 90% to 1.8 million barrels a day in March compared with 16 million bpd in February, according to data provided by Kpler.

But crude flows have rebounded over the past eight months as the U.S. military provides protection to tankers transiting Hormuz. Tehran has responded by escalating its attacks in recent weeks.

More commercial ships have come under attack in October than at any other point in the war. Yet in contrast to March when exports cratered, tankers have continued to ferry substantial volumes of crude oil through Hormuz in a sign that the shipping industry has adapted to wartime in the Persian Gulf.

As of Oct. 27, at least 30 vessels, mostly oil tankers, were hit this month leaving at minimum 16 seafarers injured, according to data from the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency. Ship attacks doubled in October compared with 15 confirmed incidents in September.

“It’s a difficult situation. Ships are attacked really on a daily basis,” said Jakob Larsen, chief safety and security officer at Denmark-headquartered BIMCO, one of the big international shipping trade associations.

Oil prices rise, but flows are resilient

Crude prices have surged more than 13% this month as security conditions have deteriorated in the Persian Gulf. The international Brent contract traded above $117 a barrel on Friday. That’s just shy of its wartime closing high of $118.35 during Iran’s big wave of ship attacks in March.

Yet actual crude exports through Hormuz stood at nearly 11.1 million bpd on average in October, only about 2% lower from September despite the sharp escalation of violence, Kpler’s data shows.

“On balance in terms of oil coming out, there hasn’t been a massive impact,” said Mary Melton, senior tanker analyst at Braemar, a ship broker headquartered in London.

Crude flows through Hormuz are highly volatile on a daily basis with exports near prewar levels one day while falling well below such levels another day. The final leg of October has seen flows decline to 7.3 million bpd for the week ended Wednesday, more than 40% below the prewar baseline, according to Kpler.

Oil flows are more resilient now because the shipping industry has adjusted its operations to the threats, Larsen said. Freight rates have soared, making it “more attractive for the risk takers in the industry to actually carry out these voyages,” he said.

“And when the cost of oil goes up that also means that there’s more commercial incentives to get the oil out and sell it in the global market,” Larsen said.

Adapting to more perilous times

Shippers have adapted by setting up a shuttle system to…

Binance was hacked with an estimated impact of $6.3 billion, raising questions about the recovery of stolen funds and the broader fallout for crypto markets. Around $3 billion in cryptocurrency assets have been frozen so far.

The exchange pledged to cover all losses, while blockchain investigators linked the attack to North Korea and analysts assessed the potential financial risks.

Bitcoin was under pressure on Friday and was trading below $78,000.

TRM Labs attributed the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking unit, based on on-chain and off-chain intelligence.

The FBI previously identified the same group as responsible for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025, according to the company’s insights. 

TRM Labs said the Binance attack shared characteristics with previous North Korea-linked incidents, including preparations made well before the theft and transaction signatures obtained in advance.

The firm estimated that approximately $6.36 billion in digital assets were moved from Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, with most transferred within about 20 minutes.

TRM Labs said preparations for the attack began at least 36 hours before the theft, with the attackers using Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing service, to fund their…

Russia and Ukraine traded strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure overnight as the Ukrainian city of Dnipro saw a near-total blackout and an oil refinery in western Russia was engulfed in flames after a drone attack.

Emergency power cuts came into force in Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast early Friday after damage from Russian attacks, according to Ukrainian private energy company DTEK. 

More than 350,000 people were left without power and work is ongoing to restore supply, Oleksandr Hanzha, the head of the military administration in the region, said in a Telegram post.

An oil refinery in the Russian city of Novokuibyshevsk in Samara Oblast that produced jet fuel for the Russian armed forces was set on fire after being hit by a Ukrainian drone.

Late Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had destroyed two Russian Su-34 fighter jets and struck an Iskander missile launcher.

He also warned that Russia was preparing further high-speed missile attacks and urged Ukraine’s allies to urgently supply more air defense interceptors, particularly for Patriot systems.

“We now have intel about the Russians preparing new ballistic missile attacks,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address from Kyiv. “We need the capabilities to shoot down this Russian evil and are awaiting the decisions,” he added, referring to anti-ballistic defense capabilities provided by allies.

Ukraine is facing an acute shortage of interceptors to shoot down incoming Russian ballistic missiles. 

Early Thursday, at least 14 people were killed in an attack on a Ukrainian rail platform in Dnipro, while at least six more people died in additional strikes throughout the day, according to officials. 

The attacks came as a six-day local ceasefire in Kherson in southern Ukraine appeared to hold for a third day, raising cautious optimism that a broader truce may be possible. 

While attempts at a peace deal have so far been unsuccessful, a new round of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations is expected next month in Abu Dhabi. Both sides have emphasized the need for security guarantees.

Tensions have run high between Zelenskyy and…