The latest Market Talks covering FX and Fixed Income. Published exclusively on Dow Jones Newswires throughout the day.
1303 ET - BTCS SA's Wojciech Kaszycki has "never seen a worse day for Binance" after hackers swiped $6.3 billion from the crypto exchange's digital wallets. "It was a failure of basic corporate security," Kaszycki says in a note. The exchange's preliminary findings show that one Binance engineer's laptop was compromised, which gave attackers access to the system that processes withdrawals, he says. A single device should never be able to move money, and a device with that kind of access should never leave the building, Kaszycki says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1234 ET - In the wake of the $6.3 billion Binance breach, Brickken co-founder Ludovico Rossi is joining Bitget CEO Gracy Chen in calling for more consistent coordination between exchanges, issuers and DeFi platforms in responding to crypto exchange hacks. "The Binance hack simply highlights how much recovery still depends on issuers being able to intervene quickly," Rossi says in a note. He highlights ERC-7943, an Ethereum standard designed to unify tokenized real-world assets, as the kind of safeguard that can help. "If adopted and integrated, that could make it easier for platforms to recognize restrictions and act quickly," Rossi says. (dean.seal@wsj.com)
1209 ET - Europe and Canada are expected to keep seeking other partnerships to reduce their dependence on the U.S. regardless of whether there are big Democratic wins in the midterm elections or if the U.S. elects a Democratic president next, Anand Sundar, special adviser to the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, says. "The message has gotten through that this America is fundamentally different and this is not just about Trump." There is more of a trend toward less U.S. involvement in the world, particularly in Europe, and conversations in Democratic foreign policy circles are different from what they were during Obama's presidency, he adds. (edith.hancock@wsj.com)
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)
1154 ET - The U.S. Treasury could increase short-term borrowing and reduce longer-term issuance when it announces its refunding plans next week, Kelley & Mullis Wealth Management's Michael Mullis says. While some analysts expect the change to happen next year, Mullis says it could come sooner. "The short end is where the safety is right now." He sees demand for the short end secured by money market funds and reserve backing required for stablecoins, while long-end appetite dwindles. Mullis keeps 34% of his $500 million portfolio on cash and Treasurys maturing in less than a year, and 15% in gold, as he expects the long-end to remain volatile amid sticky inflation. (paulo.trevisani@wsj.com; @ptrevisani)
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)
1117 ET - A new New York Fed study examines new measures of labor market tightness from social platform LinkedIn and finds some outperformed a traditional gauge using JOLTS data. The labor market is considered tight if there are few job seekers available relative to job openings, which could result in wage pressures. The researchers found that LinkedIn's Jobs per Jobseeker Index and the LinkedIn Hiring Rate measure track existing labor-market yardsticks well and offer results comparable to or better than existing measures. "Crucially, these measures are also timelier than the JOLTS hires rate and traditional measures of tightness," the researchers say. (jessica.coacci@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)
1039 ET - Risks of the U.K. interest rates staying higher for longer than markets previously expected are rising as the energy supply disruption persists, Deutsche Bank's Maui Brennan and Sanjay Raja say in a note. The BOE is widely expected to increase interest rates next week, and markets price in three more BOE interest rate rises by July 2027, LSEG data show, due to inflation fears. "Much will depend on the duration of the unfolding energy shock and how it propagates through the economy - including any signs of second-round effects," they say.
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