Intel suffers another sharp pre-market drop, profit whales add $4.5 million in short positions

Well-known trader Doctor Profit has posted that he remains bullish on Bitcoin, and believes Binance’s need to compensate for its stolen assets could generate buying demand. The portion that cannot be covered through asset recovery or the exchange’s existing holdings will need to be repurchased, though the exact purchase amount has not been revealed. Doctor Profit estimates the incident involves around $6.3 billion, of which roughly $3 billion has been frozen. He projects that after Tether and Circle reissue the corresponding assets, the remaining gap will stand at approximately $3.3 billion, equal to about 2.05% of Binance’s total assets. Based on this, he judges that if no more funds are frozen later, Binance will need to repurchase roughly $3.3 billion in crypto assets, including Bitcoin, and views this potential replenishment requirement as capital inflow. Doctor Profit added that the incident has not shaken his bullish stance: he still holds his Bitcoin long position opened at $80,400 and spot Bitcoin bought at $60,000. He noted that he was prepared for volatility before entering the market and will not exit his positions over this incident.

Binance CEO He Yi said in a post that Binance’s SAFU Fund and its held assets include large amounts of BTC, ETH, and other digital assets. The exchange is currently purchasing all stolen altcoins in full via over-the-counter (OTC) and spot markets to complete its Proof of Reserves (POR) process, and will provide another update once the purchases are finished.

According to Axios, Qatari mediators have arrived in Tehran to discuss the latest U.S. peace negotiation proposal.

Bernstein analysts said Amazon (AMZN.O)’s ad revenue missed expectations, which will intensify investors’ concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting its search business model, and rekindle the related questions that emerged earlier this week after Google parent Alphabet reported earnings. The analysts noted Amazon’s third-quarter ad revenue growth slowed to 12% year-over-year, and the ad business is a key profit source for the company. This underperformance will spark market skepticism over whether AI is altering consumer behavior. That said, Amazon offered a more upbeat outlook for fourth-quarter ad revenue growth.

According to Reuters, Binance is collaborating with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Secret Service to probe a $6.3 billion cryptocurrency theft case.

Binance said in a statement that it has begun recovering affected assets for its users, and continues to collaborate with law enforcement agencies, asset issuers, blockchain intelligence firms, and industry partners to track, freeze, and recover additional funds. Binance added that the company has set aside over $6.34 billion to cover losses from the incident, with $5 billion already held in tokens identical to the affected assets. The remaining amount is being purchased via market channels and over-the-counter (OTC) platforms to match the token types of the remaining affected assets and fill the asset gap. Due to low liquidity of some tokens and the time required for OTC settlements, the related purchases may take an extended period. The above sum does not include assets that have already been frozen or protected, which are still under ongoing recovery and verification. To date, $3 billion in assets have been frozen, and Binance is working with partners and law enforcement to recover these funds. Binance stated that it will continue to deploy its corporate resources to cover confirmed funding gaps, and will release more verified information as recovery efforts advance. Ultimately, all user funds will be verified through a public proof-of-reserves mechanism.