The latest Market Talks covering Financial Services. Exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires at 4:20 ET, 12:20 ET and 16:50 ET.
1204 ET - The long-term investment thesis for crypto isn't changed by the $6.3 billion Binance hack, but the bar is raised for platforms that want to ride the next wave of growth, Moon Pursuit Capital's Utkarsh Ahuja says in a note. Investors will start to favor platforms that demonstrate robust security, transparency and independently verifiable safeguards, rather than just liquidity and execution, he says. "Trust can no longer be assumed; it has to be earned," Ahuja says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1201 ET - The $6.3 billion Binance hack is a reminder that the biggest vulnerability in crypto is the infrastructure and operational controls around the blockchain, not the blockchain itself, Moon Pursuit Capital's Utkarsh Ahuja says in a note. For institutional investors, it highlights the need for independent custody, segregated assets, multi-layered transaction authorization and limiting exposure to a single exchange, he says. For retail investors, this should advance the conversation around safer custody solutions for everyone, Ahuja says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1200 ET - The recent crypto selloff from the Binance breach may be the last major opportunity for investors to accumulate bitcoin under the $80,000 mark before the next bull market takes hold, ZX Squared Capital's CK Zheng says in a note. Zheng has been predicting that bitcoin could rise to $150,000 next year. Exchange hacks have historically only had a short-term impact on bitcoin prices, driven by traders' psychological reactions rather than any deterioration in bitcoin's underlying fundamentals, he says. "I believe this latest selloff represents the final capitulation phase of the 2026 crypto bear market," Zheng says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1129 ET - Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, responding to news of the $6.3 billion Binance hack, is calling for faster coordination between exchanges, issuers, blockchain security firms and law enforcement to crack down on crypto cyber attacks. "When an attack happens, those relationships need to work in minutes, not days," Chen says in a note. The industry's biggest challenge is the speed at which stolen assets can move across different networks, she says. Some funds can be frozen, but others can be converted into assets that can't be frozen, Chen says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1121 ET - Bitget CEO Gracy Chen says she knows just how difficult the initial response period is for Binance as it reckons with the fallout of a $6.3 billion hack. Bitget dealt with its own headline-making security breach last month, in which hackers stole roughly $388 million. The crypto exchange's priority was to contain the incident, protect users and communicate openly about what had happened, Chen says in a note. Bitget covered the financial impact with its Protection Fund and user balances weren't affected, she says. "Right now, the focus should be on supporting Binance's recovery efforts and protecting its users," Chen says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1059 ET - The biggest risk from Binance's $6.3 billion hack is a confidence shock to centralized crypto infrastructure, Bitget Wallet's Lacie Zhang says in a note. Prolonged withdrawal restrictions or doubts about exchanges' reserves could cause lenders and market makers to retreat, draining liquidity across platforms, Zhang says. Any depegging of stablecoins or deterioration of market depth would show that the contagion is spreading, she says. The initial reaction from bitcoin has been more contained than during previous cyber incidents, but long-term confidence will depend on restored withdrawals, independently verified reserves and transparent accountability, Zhang says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1008 ET - There isn't evidence yet that the attackers used artificial intelligence in the Binance hack, but cybersecurity experts warn that AI is making these kinds of large-scale intrusions more common. AI is helping attackers find and exploit weaknesses faster than companies can fix them, The Hashgraph Group's Stefan Deiss says in a note. Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated and widespread alongside the rise of AI, Absolute Security's Andy Ward says in a note. It's only a matter of time before a larger hack with greater financial fallout makes headlines, Ward says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1001 ET - News of a major crypto hack has left bitcoin and other digital assets in a difficult position, Trade Nation's David Morrison says in a note. Binance, one of the world's biggest crypto exchange, suspended transactions to investigate what is expected to be the largest-ever crypto heist. Bitcoin had done a solid job in holding on to support around $80,000 over the past six weeks but has now broken well below that level, Morrison says. "The next big level of support is $75,000." A break below that level would open up the possibility of a retest of summer lows, he says. Bitcoin falls 2.1% to $77,182, having reached a six-week low of $76,368 overnight, LSEG data show. (renae.dyer@wsj.com)
0627 ET - Increased volatility is to be expected in the wake of the Binance hack but the market reaction has been relatively orderly so far, says Fabian Dori, CIO at Sygnum Bank. He attributes that in part to the timely freezing of some affected assets and Binance's commitment to cover losses. Importantly, the information available so far indicates a compromise of a specific transaction-authorization layer, not the blockchain protocol layer, Dori notes. That suggests long-term institutional adoption won't be affected. Instead, such incidents reinforce the trend toward institutional-grade setups, he says. Dori sees sentiment as increasingly driven by trust in independently audited infrastructure, rather than short-term narratives and price action. "Consequently, the ongoing migration to off-exchange settlement and custody solutions might be accelerated." (fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com)
0547 ET - ANZ raises its annual GDP growth forecast for Taiwan to 13.0% from 10.1% after the island's 3Q GDP growth surprised on the upside. Taiwan's 3Q GDP growth came in at 14.36%, which beat market expectations, and was underpinned by its robust exports growth, ANZ economist Raymond Yeung says in a note. However, "the key risk to Taiwan's cyclical outlook is its exceptionally high exposure to the AI investment cycle," he says. While ANZ doesn't think the AI boom is coming to an end, concerns are emerging over the scale of investment by hyperscalers. Taiwan's robust economic growth also gives its central bank ample room to focus on inflation, he says. If Taiwan's inflation approaches 3% in 4Q, an interest rate hike in December is possible, he adds. (sherry.qin@wsj.com)
0523 ET - The suspected hack at Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, will force the industry to go through deep introspection about fail safes, Mesta's Sandeep Pyapali says in a note. "The era of treating security as a back-office expense is over: every major exchange will now need tougher circuit-breakers, deeper insurance and reserve buffers built for a world where one compromised laptop can trigger a multibillion-dollar crisis." Investors will be looking to see whether Binance absorbs losses without passing onto customers, he says. Binance said user funds were safe and all hacking losses would be covered. User balances are only truly safe if the exchange replaces missing assets quickly, reopens withdrawals in an orderly fashion and proves its reserves again, Pyapali says. (renae.dyer@wsj.com)
0518 ET - NatWest Group's topline outlook and capital return potential will be in focus following third-quarter results, UBS analysts Jason Napier and Sanjena Dadawala write. After commentary from peers HSBC and Lloyds Banking about more challenging market conditions, any comments from NatWest management about momentum into 2027 will decide how the stock trades in the short term, the analysts say. Given the better-than-expected guidance on the CET1 capital ratio, UBS expects a focus on the potential for higher capital returns than is currently forecast. Shares are down 3.3%.
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