Business Report: Binance Covers 90% of Hack as OpenAI Trims Raise, Oct. 31, 2026

This business report for October 31, 2026 covers a Saturday when markets were closed but the money stories kept coming. Binance said it has restored backing for most of the crypto stolen in a record hack, OpenAI scaled back its latest fundraising round, and fuel prices are on track to set an Election Day record three days before the U.S. midterms.

Binance Says It Has Covered 90% of a Record Crypto Theft

The world’s largest crypto exchange said Saturday that it has replaced up to 90% of the roughly $6.3 billion in tokens stolen from its hot wallets, the internet-connected wallets it uses for day-to-day withdrawals, CNBC reported. That does not mean the money came back from the attacker. Binance is paying for the gap itself, drawing on its user protection fund, part of its futures insurance fund and its corporate treasury.

The exchange said its ten largest tokens, including bitcoin, ether, tether and USDC, are now fully backed, and that the missing 10% sits in smaller, less liquid coins it is still buying on the open market. Binance plans to reopen withdrawals on Sunday, subject to security checks. How the breach happened remains unclear. Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs said the attack shares features with earlier heists linked to North Korea, but who carried it out has not been established.

OpenAI Trims Its Raise as AI Spending Faces Tougher Questions

OpenAI is now seeking up to $20 billion in its latest funding round, down from a target of about $30 billion. The Financial Times first reported the cut and put the round’s valuation at $1.25 trillion after the new money; CNBC confirmed the lower target, noting the round has not closed and investors from the United Arab Emirates are leading it alongside Coatue. We covered the details in our report on OpenAI’s smaller funding round.

The pullback lands in a week when investors questioned whether the tech giants’ data-center spending will pay off. Alphabet had its worst trading day ever on Thursday after search revenue fell short of forecasts, CNBC reported, a slide The Economist framed as a “$500bn bloodbath” that reflects the threat AI poses to Google’s business. The FT reported that investors are trimming growth bets and returning to bonds on worries about how much of the U.S. economy now rests on AI spending. The American Prospect, in a look at the AI industry’s finances, pointed to Anthropic’s IPO prospectus, which shows first-half revenue of $16.3 billion against planned obligations of between $518 billion and $807 billion over the next decade, much of it owed to Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and Broadcom. The Prospect reported that the Congressional Progressive Caucus has drafted a House resolution urging Congress to refuse bailouts for companies that fail because of AI-market stress.

Fuel Prices Head for an Election Day Record

Gasoline averaged $4.20 a gallon nationwide on Friday, nearly 40% higher than a year earlier, and diesel reached $6.32 after rising about 70% over the past year, CNBC reported. GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan said prices have never been this high this late in the year, and he forecast the highest pump prices ever recorded on an Election Day. The White House said in a statement that gas prices will drop sharply once the conflict with Iran ends, and noted that inflation-adjusted prices were higher around some earlier elections.

The squeeze at the pump has been a windfall for refiners. In a separate CNBC analysis, Chevron’s downstream earnings more than quadrupled from a year earlier to $4.9 billion, while Shell, BP, TotalEnergies and Exxon all reported much wider refining margins. Wood Mackenzie’s Raphael Portela told CNBC that even a Strait of Hormuz settlement would leave physical fuel supplies tight well into 2027 because inventories are so depleted. For more on the oil majors, see our breakdown of Exxon and Chevron’s third-quarter earnings.

Money in the Midterms

Super PACs formed in the last ten weeks before Election Day are spending heavily before voters can see who funds them. A CNBC analysis of federal filings found 22 such groups that have each spent at least $1 million on congressional races, about $637 million in all, roughly one-sixth of independent spending this cycle. Some will not have to name their donors until December 3, a month after the vote. The American Prospect, meanwhile, reported that at least ten New York and New Jersey nursing home investors gave $329,000 to congressional Republicans on a single day in March from one address in Richmond, Kentucky.

Two more stories to note. A federal judge in Miami on Saturday dismissed with prejudice President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, and a spokesman for Trump’s legal team told CNBC the president will appeal, CNBC reported. In Europe, Fitch cut its outlook on France outside its normal schedule, hours after data showed the French economy unexpectedly shrank in the third quarter, according to the Financial Times.

The Boston Angle: Winter Gas Bills Reset Sunday

Massachusetts households get their own energy test this weekend. New winter natural gas rates approved by state regulators take effect November 1, with National Grid bills roughly flat, Eversource Gas Company of Massachusetts customers seeing a drop of about 5% and NSTAR Gas customers facing an increase of about 7%. Our full report on Massachusetts winter gas rates explains what each utility’s customers will pay.

By the Numbers: What the Data Shows

Markets were closed Saturday, so the latest prices are Friday’s. October ended with a split market: the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.3% for the month while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1.7%, according to CNBC closing data. That gap of seven percentage points, a TBR calculation, shows how much of the damage was concentrated in technology shares. Friday’s full session is in our October 30 business report.

At the pump, TBR calculates from the CNBC and AAA figures that today’s $4.20 gasoline is about 10.5% above the $3.80 average at the 2022 midterms, the year Russia’s invasion of Ukraine set off an energy crisis. Diesel, at $6.32, costs about 50% more than a gallon of gasoline. On the crypto side, Binance’s 90% coverage works out to roughly $5.7 billion replaced, leaving about $630 million still to buy. OpenAI’s smaller target is a cut of one-third, and the $637 million from late super PACs implies total independent spending of about $3.8 billion in congressional races, both TBR calculations.

What to Watch

Binance’s plan to restart withdrawals Sunday is the first test of whether customers trust the fix. Tuesday’s midterm elections are the week’s main event for markets, and CNBC reported that oil traders are pricing in the risk of renewed fighting with Iran once voting ends. Any escalation would land just before the Thanksgiving driving season.

Sources

• The American Prospect: House progressives on an AI bailout, Anthropic and Google
• The American Prospect: The mysterious nursing home money bomb
• CNBC: Binance says 90% of $6.3 billion hack losses are now covered
• CNBC: OpenAI pares fundraising goal, now seeking up to $20 billion
• CNBC: Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices ahead of the midterms
• CNBC: How much Big Oil’s refining earnings have surged
• CNBC: Pop-up super PACs pour $637 million into 2026 midterm races
• CNBC: Trump defamation suit against Murdoch and WSJ dismissed
• CNBC: Stock market today, Oct. 30 session and October closing data
• Financial Times: OpenAI slashes funding target by $10bn
• Financial Times: Investors trim growth bets over fears of US economy’s AI exposure
• Financial Times: Fitch hits France with unscheduled outlook downgrade
• The Economist: Google’s $500bn bloodbath reflects the danger it faces from AI