Your Weekly Deep Dive into The World of Crypto

October 28, 2026 · 5 Min Read

GM, Readers!

Something strange happened in crypto’s quieter corners this week. An exchange lost millions to wallets it thought it had switched off. A six-month-old hack came out of hiding.

One treasury giant is still stacking into the dip. And the biggest holders in Bitcoin are moving in a way nobody is talking about.

Let’s get into it...

Halloween Plans in NYC?

Looking for something fun to do this Halloween? Check out this upcoming New York City event!

[Get Your Tickets Here]

On-chain investigator ZachXBT caught 15.99M USDT walking out of CoinDCX deposit addresses that were supposed to be deprecated back in July 2025. The exchange absorbed the $16M loss from treasury reserves. No customer funds were touched.

Whale Intel: A retired wallet is still a live wallet until the keys are destroyed. If an exchange still holds signing power on an address it labeled "deprecated," the attack surface never closed. 

Read CoinDCX Update Here ➜

Per Arkham, wallets tied to the April Drift Protocol exploit have now routed roughly $122.3M of ETH through Tornado Cash in staged batches. According to Arkham tracking, the exploiter’s labelled wallets still hold $137.22M.

Read the Chainalysis Report ➜

Whale Intel: When a dormant exploiter wakes up and runs Tornado batches, laundering is active. Expect CEX compliance desks to screen tagged flows aggressively. 

Bitcoin Treasury giant Strive’s Oct 26 SEC filing says that the company stacked another 6,182 BTC (October 17-23), lifting holdings to roughly 43,000 BTC. Strive is buying faster than almost any other public treasury name right now, even on a soft tape.

Whale Intel: Weekly buys at this scale signal conviction. When price dips and a treasury name keeps bidding, the next leg up has one more sticky buyer.

Meanwhile, Strategy Pauses Bitcoin Buying ➜ 

On October 27, Lookonchain data revealed that two whale wallets deposited 2,571 BTC (worth approximately $206.52M) into Coinbase Prime after sitting completely dormant for three years.

Whale Intel: Moving over $206M of sleeping Bitcoin to big-player platforms like Coinbase Prime means a major private sale is brewing. Watch closely: if these coins hit public markets, prices could swing fast!

Popsmith is scaling fast. With a 45% repeat purchase rate in 2025, $20M+ in lifetime revenue, and $9M in projected 2026 revenue, this premium popcorn company is expanding its retail reach and inviting individual investors to join its next phase before the round closes.

Become a Popsmith Shareholder

The whiplash was real. Spot BTC ETFs put in $528.40M on Oct 21, the second big green day in October. Oct 22 flipped dramatically with -$635.49M, marking the largest outflow since June. Oct 23 extended the bleed with a -$137.94M outflow.

However, Oct 26 brought temporary relief as BlackRock’s IBIT single-handedly drove $110.34M in fresh inflows back into the market.

Whale Intel: Two outsized sessions in opposite directions mean institutional flows are moving on headlines, not conviction. The Fed decision either reinforces the fade or breaks it.

💸 Curious where institutional money is flowing? Track ETF flows.

On Oct 23, Initia halted its network after an attacker allegedly minted unauthorized tokens through a Mint module exploit. Initia co-founder Ezaan Mangalji, aka Zon, said on X that an unknown “Day 0 bug” allowed this unauthorized minting that drained $2.7M worth of AUSD, ETH, and USDC before the chain was halted.

Not a classic rug pull. The newer version: a live L1 stopping itself because the code allowed something it should not have.

Whale Intel: If you hold INIT or use Initia dApps, wait for the official post-mortem. A halt is reversible. A supply inflation is harder to unwind.

The DOJ extradited Chinese national Zheng Zhao on October 23 over his alleged role in a $36.9M crypto investment scam targeting US victims. 

The group ran fake crypto platforms with pig butchering tactics, drained the deposits, and moved them through overseas accounts.

Zhao now faces US charges in California. The case fits a growing push by federal prosecutors to go after cross-border scam operators, not just US-facing scammers.

Whale Intel: If a stranger DMs you about a crypto "opportunity" tied to a platform you have never heard of, close the chat. Pig butchering starts with trust, not links.

Read the Full DOJ Report Here ➜

On Oct 23, Opinion put the odds of a near-term Polymarket token drop at just 1.5%. While Polymarket continues to hint at eventual tokenomics, they have never confirmed a date. Prediction markets are basically pricing in "no chance."

On Oct 22, Kalshi flagged a 90% chance of a rate pause, an all-time high for expectations. Markets are near-unanimous on a hold at the 3.75-4.00% target range.

On Oct 23, Kalshi traders forecast BTC crossing $83K before year-end. With BTC hovering around $79K, that’s a solid upside target.

The Fed decides today. The surprise, if any, is in the press conference. BTC ETFs need two straight green days to flip the Oct 22 narrative. And watch Initia for its post-mortem.