A bank’s $133 million breach began with a service provider

Privacy (7)

• Q and A says attackers exploited two linked flaws in Foundation’s self-hosted Cal.com and credential-management software, then sent more than 23,000 branded phishing emails to 21,500 addresses on October 25.
• The breach exposed names, email addresses, order details, and archived support conversations; some records also contained postal addresses, phone numbers, and partial card details. Foundation says Passport and Envoy devices, software, and customer funds were unaffected.
• Q and A says old WooCommerce records remained in database copies despite appearing redacted in the admin panel, while Shopify data had not yet been redacted. Foundation accepted responsibility for retaining data it believed was gone.
• Max argues that customers should share as little personal information as possible, even while expecting companies to protect data they collect. He recommends using a P.O. box or buying in person when practical, rather than giving vendors a home address.
• Q and A recommends Have I Been Pwned to check whether an email appears in known breaches, while noting it only checks email addresses. For changing contact details, he suggests listing accounts, using carrier forwarding where available, and updating services directly.
• Max says Chainalysis disclosed that an outside attacker accessed user IDs, names, email addresses, and organization roles, then later found that usernames, password hashes, and live tokens were exposed. Its screening products went offline temporarily; the company said investigation content was not accessed.
• Max says Bull Bitcoin made Payjoin the default for on-chain buys and sells through its wallet exchange. Payjoin breaks the assumption that every transaction input belongs to one sender, though the exchange still knows the transaction and a first purchase into an empty wallet cannot use it.

Safety (4)

• Q and A says companies must test their systems as attackers would and check how connected software can be exploited together. Foundation is reviewing old software and considering less self-hosting, since running more code itself also increased maintenance and attack exposure.
• Max says the Binance attackers used compromised employee machines and internal signing systems rather than stealing private keys directly. Earlier intrusions involved a tampered Homebrew package and malware in a fake recruiter’s coding task, then spread through an internal AI tool.
• Max says a 23-year-old crypto holder in France, targeted for a second time since 2022, was sentenced after firing at attempted kidnappers who were fleeing his father’s home. Max condemns the sentence and warns that public displays of wealth can expose holders to physical attacks.
• Max reports that Russian police arrested five men accused of holding a programmer in a garage for five hours and forcing him to send 10.4 BTC. The attackers allegedly chose him after seeing luxury cars in his social-media photos.

Custody (5)

• Max and Q and A favor separating Bitcoin activity from experimental AI use. Max suggests keeping Sparrow and a Bitcoin node off an AI-running computer; Q and A prefers a dedicated Bitcoin device and isolating AI access to other personal data.
• Q and A says meeting Bitcoin builders at BTC Amsterdam eased his pessimism; he gave a talk on human-authority hardware. Max argues continued work matters because Bitcoin tools can help people resist growing financial control and leave more freedom to their children.
• Max reports that Binance’s hot wallets lost assets across several chains, including 18,270 BTC, in the largest exchange hack discussed. Binance said the losses were covered by its SAFU fund and company funds; the FBI attributed the attack to North Korea.
• Max says Cake Wallet 6.5.3 adds Bluetooth support for the BitBox02 Nova on iPhone and iPad, including a pairing-code check, and adds BTC Map support.
• Max says Liana 16 makes Taproot the installer’s recommended default, changes encrypted descriptor backups to BIP-138 format, and adds a privacy mode. The upgrade migrates the wallet database irreversibly, so users must back up the descriptor before updating.

Lightning (3)

• Max reports that the LNbits team told operators to shut down after attacks on its paywall extension, then took hosted my.lnbits.com offline. BitTipBot reported 2.2 million sats withdrawn; LNbits said patches would follow, but no official release was available.
• Max says Electrum 4.8.4 drops incoming onion messages to prevent malformed messages from disconnecting Lightning peers, rejects channel announcements with identical node IDs, and fixes restoration of older seeds. He urges users to install the security release.
• Max says Core Lightning 26.06.10 fixes reported vulnerabilities involving dual funding, splicing, and peer signature checks. He urges node operators to update and avoid keeping more funds hot than necessary.

Payments (1)

• Max says attackers exploited an older BTCPay Server vulnerability to drain hot wallets; servers on version 2.4.2 or later were unaffected, as were wallets whose keys stayed off-server. He advises taking outdated servers offline and keeping only necessary funds hot.

Regulation (1)

• Max says FinCEN and the Federal Reserve withdrew a proposal to lower the cross-border travel-rule recordkeeping threshold and explicitly include crypto. The existing $3,000 threshold remains; Coin Center also noted earlier hosted-wallet and mixing proposals had been dropped.

Energy (2)

• A listener pointed to Edison Motors’ diesel-electric trucks, which use available parts and are described as having electric operation with diesel range for remote areas. Max said he was unfamiliar with the design and did not endorse the claim.
• Max preferred a new analog, manual Porsche over a Tesla, describing it as a higher-end model above the 911 and saying he expected a flat-eight engine. The discussion contrasted its simple, low-screen interior with newer tech-heavy cars.

Markets (2)

• The hosts describe a sharp technology-led selloff after the midterms: semiconductor and AI-infrastructure stocks fell hardest, while they debate whether the move marks an AI bubble bursting or a correction.
• Coinbase reported $590 million in trading revenue, with prediction-market revenue offsetting lower spot volume; subscriptions and services supplied 49% of net revenue, while Brian Armstrong filed a plan allowing sales of 24% of his shares at preset prices.

Elections (1)

• The hosts call the midterms a Democratic sweep, linking the result to voter concerns about affordability, energy prices, the war, and ICE enforcement; they say Trump-aligned assets fell while the broader market initially rallied.

BTC Markets (2)

• Bitcoin briefly topped $80,000 after the election, then set a new local low near $75,500; the hosts viewed its hold near the 50-week moving average as resilient, while ETH was roughly flat on the week.
• Strategy’s preferred security STRC briefly returned to $100 after trading below that level for 174 days; the hosts warned that convertible debt coming due over the next six to nine months could require Michael Saylor to raise cash if MSTR remains below conversion thresholds.

Regulation (1)

• The hosts expect Democrats to scrutinize Trump-related crypto ventures but see little evidence of a renewed effort to suppress the whole industry; they warn that banks could seek stablecoin-yield restrictions through a revised Clarity Act.

Custody (1)

• The FBI attributed a $6.34 billion Binance hot-wallet theft to North Korea; Binance said it would cover the loss, published reserves near the full amount, and used its balance sheet and insurance fund to replace the missing assets.

Safety (1)

• The Binance breach began with a fake job interview that tricked an employee into installing spyware on a work computer; attackers spread through the company network and used EIP-7702 to bypass normal withdrawal controls.

Protocol (6)

• North Korean hackers reportedly routed stolen assets through THORChain, converting tokens including TRX and SOL into Bitcoin and Ether; the FBI explicitly urged THORChain node operators and other service providers not to process related transactions.
• Polygon validators froze stolen tokens and discussed a chain rollback, while hackers offered a large transaction fee and contacted validators privately to induce them to release the funds; the hosts framed this as a test of validator discretion and chain immutability.
• Justin Drake moved Ethereum’s post-quantum target forward, proposing post-quantum transactions, attestations, and data sampling by December 2028; he cited LeanVM’s end-to-end formal verification milestone as a reason the accelerated schedule may be achievable.
• The Ethereum Economic Zone would let participating rollups access Ethereum mainnet liquidity; Gnosis plans to become the first such chain, while the hosts expect distribution-heavy L2s such as Coinbase’s and Robinhood’s to have less reason to join.
• L2BEAT rebranded as ETHBe to broaden its remit from monitoring L2 control over users to protecting sovereignty across Ethereum’s L1 and intermediated services, including node providers and smart contracts.
• Vitalik Buterin’s 15-minute Devcon keynote focused on user privacy, health data, social platforms, and defensive acceleration rather than Ethereum or DeFi; Georgios criticized the lack of project direction, while the hosts saw the talk as evidence of Buterin’s broader focus.

Coding (1)

• Paradigm and Georgios shipped Solar, which the hosts described as making Solidity 100 times faster; they cited the release as evidence that prominent critics of Ethereum’s direction still contribute to its developer ecosystem.

Elections (2)

• David Bennett says the Democratic election sweep will change the political flavor without easing household costs; he doubts Democrats can affect Strait of Hormuz disruptions and speculates Trump could resume bombing Iran.
• Democratic lawmakers are signaling subpoenas and investigations into Trump-aligned tech executives and the Trump family's crypto businesses; Robert Garcia named corporate corruption and government agencies among his planned oversight targets.

Regulation (3)

• House Democrats are discussing a crypto market structure bill that would give the SEC more authority and the CFTC less, building on provisions Maxine Waters previously proposed.
• The House-passed CLARITY Act would put most digital commodity trading under the CFTC and exempt some mature-blockchain tokens from SEC registration; David Bennett says agency rulemaking could reverse when leadership changes.
• Block agreed in principle to a DOJ resolution over anti-money-laundering controls, while its Bitcoin profit fell after it cut transaction fees; the company rejected Hindenburg Research's allegations, and New York regulators separately found compliance gaps.

Markets (1)

• David Bennett reported broad losses across stocks and mixed commodity moves alongside Bitcoin's decline; he also noted higher Bitcoin transaction fees, a modest mempool queue, and a small drop in hash rate.

Stablecoins (1)

• Paolo Ardoino said Tether holds roughly 150,000 Bitcoin, about 50,000 more than its latest reserve attestation implies; Tether says profit-funded investments sit outside USDT reserves, but the location and ownership of the extra coins remain unclear.

AI Infrastructure (3)

• OpenAI says its Grid Protectors program would let AI facilities cut electricity use during grid emergencies, while its reported shift from “data centers” to “compute campuses” aims to improve public acceptance of the same infrastructure.
• Sam Altman said his comments about idle computer memory were taken out of context, but he had argued that scarce DRAM should be used efficiently in cloud systems; memory makers warn supply will remain tight as AI demand grows.
• Texas's unexpected Democratic gubernatorial win has put AI data-center approvals and power access in doubt; analysts see already-secured grid capacity as an advantage for miners shifting toward AI hosting.

Labor (1)

• David Bennett warned that a pause in Texas data-center construction could hit electricians, plumbers, HVAC workers, and other trades; he also recalled that Texas felt much the same to him under Democratic Governor Ann Richards as under later Republican leadership.