The Morning Minute reports that NEAR Intents was hacked for $3.8 million and asks whether it was a bullish hack.

Major crypto assets rose 2-4% as oil and bonds cooled, with bitcoin at $86,400, while the industry's attention centered on a $3.8 million exploit at NEAR Intents and a proposed SEC rule that would let investment advisers and funds hold crypto directly. The day combined a price rebound, a potential institutional custody opening, and a security incident that tested how quickly a major cross-chain tool could respond.

NEAR Intents restores service after a contained exploit

NEAR Intents briefly shut down on Thursday after an attacker took about $3.8 million. The flaw sat in the layer that moves money in and out and how it communicated with the main contract holding user funds. ZachXBT traced the stolen money to KuCoin, where it was converted to bitcoin. The team reported the incident to law enforcement and said a full report is coming.

NEAR Intents lets users swap crypto across different blockchains with privacy features. It has handled more than $30 billion in swaps across 35 networks, making it one of the more visible protocols in the privacy-focused segment of the market.

The recovery was unusually fast. The contract-side hole was patched and core services returned within about an hour. Deposits and withdrawals on 11 networks, including BNB Chain, Polygon and Optimism, stayed down for another 12 hours while the rest of the fix was completed. The team said every affected user will be paid back in full.

The market reaction was still sharp. NEAR fell nearly 9% to $4.86, and the Bitwise NEAR ETF dropped more than 7%. That fund had launched two days earlier, so its first week included a hack of the exact product Bitwise cited as proof the network was growing.

Some participants compared the incident to a ZCash exploit found by its own team and called it a bullish hack. The broader point is not that exploits are positive, but that this one showed a rapid response: the bug was found, the service was stopped, the issue was patched, users were made whole, the problem was described publicly and law enforcement was notified. The response stood apart from larger incidents such as Bitget's $387.5 million loss and Kelp DAO's exploitation for hundreds of millions. The next test will be the full report and whether the response becomes a standard for privacy-focused cross-chain tools.

SEC proposal opens a clearer custody path for advisers and funds

The SEC proposed rules that would let investment advisers and funds hold crypto directly, including holding the keys themselves when no custodian is available. The 760-page plan also would let state trust companies act as custodians and would check quarterly whether a custodian has become available.

The proposal matters because custody has been one of the practical barriers between crypto markets and institutional portfolios. If advisers can hold digital assets directly, or use a broader set of custodians, the operational path for funds may become simpler. The quarterly review language also signals that the framework is designed around changing market infrastructure rather than assuming a fixed set of custodians.

Other policy and corporate developments also moved. Illinois agreed to delay its crypto tax by six months while a court fight continues. Trump is hosting a third dinner for his memecoin's biggest holders on November 22 at his Virginia golf club; the top 185 get in, the top 29 get a reception, and the top four get an 18-karat gold watch.

Evernorth's shareholders approved its Nasdaq listing, making it the largest public company built purely around XRP. The company closes October 7 and starts trading as XRPN on October 8 with about 473 million XRP, worth roughly $705 million.

Bitcoin, USDT and traditional finance infrastructure keep converging

USDT is coming back to Bitcoin this month through Utexo, a Tether-backed company with a license to issue it there. The system uses RGB to let users hold dollars and bitcoin in one wallet, with Lightning support planned next.

Fiserv's digital asset platform went live Thursday, starting with Roughrider Coin from the state-owned Bank of North Dakota. The launch connects another financial infrastructure provider to digital asset rails, with a state-owned bank serving as the first visible use case.

ETF flows, protocol revenue and NFT trades show mixed momentum

The bitcoin ETFs saw $103 million in net inflows on Thursday, while the ETH ETFs saw $55 million in outflows and Solana had $1.1 million in outflows. The split suggests capital did not move evenly across major assets.

Major tokens rose as oil and bonds cooled: bitcoin was up 3% at $86,400, ETH was up 2% at $2,740, SOL was up 3% at $122, HYPE was up 1% at $91, and ZEC was down 1% at $1,380. Top alt movers included SKY up 17%, AAVE up 11%, ZRO up 12% and VVV up 8%. Oil fell 4% to $89, gold rose 0.3% to $4,220, and stock futures were green with DOW up 0.6% and Nasdaq up 0.7%.

On-chain protocols generated mixed revenue. Pump led with $2.62 million, followed by Hyperliquid at $1.44 million, Stonk at $940,000 and Collector Crypt at $750,000. The Ethereum Foundation launched zkAPI, a way to pay for AI without the provider knowing who the user is. Users can deposit ETH or USDC once and then prove they have the money without revealing which deposit is theirs. The product is live on Ethereum now and was built with the Open Anonymity Project.

NFT leaders were mixed. Punks were even at 33 ETH, BAYC was down 1% at 6.18 ETH and Pudgy was down 7% at 3 ETH. Quotrons rose 6% and OTC Desks rose 14% among top movers. The only 7-Trait CryptoPunk sold for about $5.9 million on Gondi, though full sale details were not disclosed overnight.

Meme coin leaders were green up 2-5%, with DOGE up 2%, SHIB up 2%, PEPE up 2%, PENGU up 2%, TRUMP up 4%, SPX up 2% and BONK up 4%. Robinhood chain leaders were mixed: Pons fell 2% to $360 million, AI fell 2% at $154 million, Cashcat rose 3% at $174 million, while Genie rose 500%, Shroom rose 24% and Moo rose 80%. Solana top movers were led by www up 135x, Hooked up 180%, Cards up 26% and Sapling up 170x.

What to watch next

The immediate questions are whether NEAR Intents' full report identifies broader risks for privacy-focused cross-chain swaps, whether the SEC proposal changes how advisers and funds approach custody, and whether ETF flows continue to rotate among bitcoin, ETH and Solana. The CryptoPunk sale and the Ethereum Foundation's zkAPI launch show that security, payments and digital collectibles remain separate but connected pressure points for the market.