The Binance hack could accelerate a shift in crypto trading toward decentralized exchanges, benefiting Uniswap over the longer term, according to Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoffrey Kendrick.In an email shared with Cointelegraph, Kendrick said the breach should drive further growth in decentralized exchanges’ share of trading relative to centralized platforms, though investors should wait until after the impact of the Binance attack has time to play out in the markets. “I would encourage investors to re-engage with Uniswap,” said Kendrick. “The decentralized exchange (DEX) has never had any exploits, and the hack of the largest centralized exchange (CEX), in Binance, should see the ratio of DEX to CEX trading continue to increase.”CoinGecko research shows that the top 10 spot DEX-to-CEX ratio was 23.5% in the second quarter of 2026, climbing 2.1 percentage points from the first quarter of 2026. Kendrick said he retains his $100 price target for Uniswap (UNI) for 2030, but said the Binance hack is “another reason why that forecast may end up being too low.”The forecast builds on Standard Chartered’s earlier thesis that assets locked in DeFi could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030, with Uniswap emerging as a key trading venue for tokenized assets.Looking at the broader implications of the Binance hack, Kendrick said he expects there will be further negative price action in the near term. Cointelegraph reported that cryptocurrency markets extended their decline early Friday following the Binance hack, with BNB down more than 8% over 24 hours and Bitcoin trading near $77,000. Decentralized finance tokens also declined. Aave’s AAVE fell 11.3% to $118.54, while Uniswap’s UNI dropped 10.4% to $6.48, according to CoinGecko.“Only after assets are unfrozen and more detail of the hack emerges will we find a new base,” said Kendrick. Live updates: Binance says $6.3B hack involved compromised engineer’s laptop

The suspected multi-billion-dollar Binance hack may have involved attackers manipulating the exchange’s transaction-signing signature rather than stealing private keys, according to Blockaid co-founder and CEO Ido Ben-Natan.Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ben-Natan said Blockaid’s preliminary assessment pointed to “key misuse,” in which attackers trick or compromise a signing system into authorizing malicious transactions without extracting the underlying private key. “It seems to be… a compromise of signing infrastructure. We don’t think a key was leaked,” he said.Ben-Natan said this was a preliminary assessment, drawing on their experience with similar attacks and their observations of the onchain activity. Binance has not confirmed the precise method that allowed hackers to steal over $2.5 billion in crypto from the exchange — the largest crypto hack in history. Arkham CEO Miguel Morel told Cointelegraph there isn’t enough information at this point in time to confirm whether the attack involved stolen keys or compromised infrastructure. “From what we can tell, it appears the hack is still ongoing,” he said.Related: Binance hack rattles crypto markets as BNB falls 7%, Bitcoin slidesBlockaid identifies malicious wallet delegationIn its onchain analysis published on X, Blockaid said the attacker bundled 50 EIP-7702 authorizations into a single transaction targeting Binance 14. One authorization reportedly matched the account’s required nonce, allowing it to be accepted. EIP-7702 allows an account to delegate execution to smart-contract code. Blockaid said the affected account was delegated to an unverified sweeper contract that allowed a designated operator to drain tokens and Ether.Ben-Natan told Cointelegraph the operation could have involved multiple compromised devices and movement through the exchange’s network, though this remains unconfirmed.North Korea, Bybit comparisonAsked whether the suspected signing manipulation resembled the February 2025 Bybit attack, Ben-Natan described the incidents as “very, very similar.”In that case, Bybit’s published forensic update said attackers compromised a Safe developer’s credentials, accessed the wallet provider’s infrastructure and deceived signers into approving a malicious transaction.Like Bybit, Ben-Natan said the activity resembled operations linked to North Korean cyber attackers, based on the sophistication of the on-chain preparations.Magazine: Tampered Ledger reported in Singapore a month before news broke: Asia Express

Binance is investigating a potential multibillion-dollar security breach involving one of its Ethereum wallets, after suspicious transfers prompted stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle to reportedly freeze nearly $1.8 billion in assets.A Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph on Thursday that the exchange was investigating reports of a potential security issue but had not confirmed any impact on user funds. The spokesperson said its security teams were reviewing the activity and would provide updates once more information was verified.Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao said the activity appeared to be a hack, adding that Tether and Circle had frozen approximately $971 million and $823 million, respectively. Zhao, who no longer manages the exchange, said he expected all user funds to be fully covered.The concerns were first raised by blockchain researcher Spreek, who posted on X that assets from a Binance-linked Ethereum wallet had been transferred to a newly created address through a contract call allegedly funded by Tornado Cash. Spreek later reported that wallets connected to the transfers had begun selling Tether (USDT) through decentralized exchanges.“Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority,” Ardoino wrote.Tether and Circle freeze over $2.36B amid suspected Binance hackStablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, the two largest stablecoin issuers by market cap, both announced Thursday afternoon on X that they had frozen more than $2.36 billion in tokens linked to the suspected Binance hack.Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said at 5:18 p.m. Eastern that the company had frozen more than $800 million in USDC in coordination with law enforcement and would continue supporting the investigation.A few minutes later, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced that the company had frozen more than $1.567 billion in USDT linked to the potential exploit.“Protecting the industry and our partners is our main priority,” Ardoino wrote.Source: Paolo ArdoinoMagazine: Private, fast USDT is coming to Bitcoin. Can it compete with Ethereum and Tron?

Publicly traded companies accounted for 16% of blockchain industry revenue in 2026, more than double their 7% share in 2022, according to a new report from crypto investment firm 1kx.The increase comes as overall blockchain revenue is projected to decline 28% year over year to roughly $100 billion in 2026. The report analyzed data from more than 2,600 protocols and earnings reports from 104 publicly traded companies through the third quarter.The researchers attributed the growing share of public companies partly to new stock market listings, including stablecoin issuer Circle, which went public in 2025, and revenue growth among existing companies. The 10 largest publicly traded companies in the study doubled their blockchain-related revenue over the past three years.Coinbase and Circle generated approximately $3.3 billion in combined blockchain-related revenue in the first half of 2026, according to 1kx, while publicly traded Bitcoin miners earned roughly $2 billion. Traditional financial firms, including JPMorgan, BlackRock, CME Group, Visa and Robinhood, accounted for another $1.1 billion collectively.Revenue remains concentrated among a relatively small number of businesses. The six largest publicly traded companies accounted for roughly 50% to 60% of the group’s revenue, according to the report.Related: BlackRock files for third Bitcoin ETF, still no Solana or XRPInstitutional and real-world activity gains share of blockchain revenueThe report also found that revenue from broader economic activity surpassed blockchain infrastructure revenue for the first time in the third quarter, reaching approximately $5.3 billion compared with $5.1 billion, according to 1kx.The category, which includes tokenized assets, payments and prediction markets, grew 58% year over year in the first half of 2026. Together with institutional adoption, it accounted for 33% of total blockchain revenue in the third quarter, with the report projecting a 30% share for the full year.Institutional and broader economic activity to reach 30% of blockchain revenue in 2026. Source: 1kx reportRWA.xyz data shows the value of distributed tokenized real-world assets rose roughly 51% over the past year, from $26.16 billion in October 2025 to $39.54 billion as of Thursday. Tokenized equities grew even faster, surging 471% over the same period to $3.77 billion.Magazine: Private, fast USDT is coming to Bitcoin. Can it compete with Ethereum and Tron?