DeFi Weekly November 2026 Week 1: Binance Restores Withdrawals

A week after the Binance exploit, the focus moved from damage to recovery: Binance reopened withdrawals and published a proof of reserves, deposits flowed back into Aave's reopened markets, and US authorities named the attackers. Below, we look at what recovered, what did not, and what is worth watching next.

The numbers have stabilized rather than rebounded. DeFi TVL sits at $80.99B, down 1.6% on the week, with BTC at $75,992 (-2.57% 7d) and ETH at $2,238.89 (-1.21% 7d). The Fear & Greed Index hit 25 (Extreme Fear) on Saturday and stands at 28 (Fear) today.

This edition covers the Binance recovery and the FBI's attribution, Payward's purchase of AAVE and Aave Labs' move into fixed-rate lending, Circle's Q3 results, FinCEN withdrawing its crypto Travel Rule proposal, and the DNS hijack that hit a dozen DeFi frontends.

We also highlight five yields on Portals Explorer, each checked against the protocol's own data.

Key Takeaways

• As of 8 Nov 2026, DeFi TVL was $80.99B, down 1.6% from $82.31B on 1 Nov.
• Binance reopened withdrawals from 1 Nov, published a zero-knowledge proof of reserves for its 31 Oct snapshot and says about 98% of the affected assets have been replenished. The FBI attributed the hack to North Korea's TraderTraitor on 31 Oct.
• Aave's frozen V3 reserves are open again. The Ethereum USDC reserve is active and unfrozen onchain, and its deposits rose to $2.85B from $2.35B a week earlier, according to Portals Explorer.
• A Payward-affiliated fund bought AAVE on the secondary market, and Aave Labs acquired the Avon team to build fixed-rate lending.
• Circle reported $865M in Q3 revenue and reserve income, with average USDC circulation of $73.3B.

Market Pulse (8 Nov 2026)

The week after the exploit was about repair rather than a rebound. DeFi TVL moved in a narrow band between $80.84B and $82.68B on most days and closed the week 1.6% lower. BTC and ETH both drifted down, and sentiment stayed in Fear or worse all week, dipping to 25 (Extreme Fear) on 7 Nov.

Under the flat headline number, capital moved. Aave V3 TVL rose 3.3% as its markets reopened, and Ethena USDe grew 9.4%. Sky Lending fell 14.7%, the largest drop among the top ten protocols. How TVL is measured, and what it misses.

Gas fell further, to about 0.04 Gwei, so moving positions onchain stayed cheap.

Top Yields on Portals Explorer

Portals Explorer tracks live APY, TVL and 7-day history for yield, lending and staking positions across every major chain, and lets you enter any of them in one click. Each position below comes from a blue-chip protocol, holds more than $100M TVL, and has its rate verified against the protocol’s own data.

Here are this week’s top picks.

1. Ethena sUSDe (Ethereum): 5.02% APY

sUSDe held the steadiest stablecoin rate on the list, ranging 5.01% to 5.30% over the week with a 7d average of 5.14% on $1.20B TVL. Ethena's own dashboard put the staking yield at 5.25% on 4 November with a 30-day average of 5.00%, in line with Explorer.

The rate tracks perp funding and staking income on the hedged collateral, so it compresses when funding turns negative. More on the mechanics in What is Ethena.

2. Morpho Spark USDC Vault (Base): 4.49% APY

Spark's curated USDC vault on Morpho returns 4.49% net of its 10% performance fee on $299.0M TVL, matching Morpho's own vault data.

The 7d average of 4.96% includes a short spike to 9.87% on 7 November when borrow demand on Base jumped; the rate settled back near its baseline within a day. See What is Morpho for how curated vaults allocate across markets.

3. Morpho Steakhouse USDC (Base): 3.73% APY

Steakhouse's USDC vault on Base sits at 3.73% net on $106.8M TVL, again an exact match with Morpho's data.

It caught the same 7 November spike (peaking at 8.16%) and averaged 4.11% across the week. The 25% curator fee is higher than Spark's, which explains most of the gap between the two Base vaults.

4. Aave V3 USDC (Ethereum): 3.52% APY

Aave's main USDC market pays 3.52% on $2.85B TVL, up from about $2.35B a week ago as deposits returned after the Binance-related freeze. We read the reserve onchain: supply rate 3.52%, reserve active and not frozen.

The 7d average of 4.07% reflects elevated borrow demand early in the week before rates eased on 7 November. Background on the markets in Aave V1 vs V2 vs V3 vs V4.

5. Lido stETH (Ethereum): 2.25% APY

The benchmark ETH yield is 2.25% on $21.72B TVL, matching Lido's latest APR of 2.25% (7d average 2.35%).

It is the lowest rate here but avoids stablecoin and curator risk, though it still carries ETH price exposure, smart contract and slashing risk, and the chance of stETH trading below ETH. For more on how it works, read Lido Finance explained.

DeFi News

Follow-up: Binance reopens withdrawals and replenishes 98% of affected assets

Binance began reopening withdrawals in phases on 1 November and has since restored withdrawals for dozens of assets across BSC, Ethereum, Base, Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, Tron and Sui.

In Recovery Update #5 the exchange published a zero-knowledge proof of reserves for its 31 October snapshot, showing 1:1 backing for 10 tokens (BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC).

In a 4 November update, Binance said about 98% of the affected assets had been replenished from its own funds, with the remaining 2% in less liquid tokens being bought through market and OTC channels. It also said a new snapshot covering 44 tokens would take 50 to 60 hours to generate a full proof.

On attribution, the FBI said on 31 October that North Korea's TraderTraitor group was behind the attack, in line with what Elliptic had suggested last week. Binance continues to say users will not bear any of the loss.

On 7 November, co-CEO Yi He said CFO Kaiser Ng is leaving to pursue a new venture under a transition plan in place for six months, with Justin Yek, formerly of Airwallex, taking over.

On 6 November, Binance said it is working to reopen withdrawals for HYPE, INJ, APT, PLASMA, NEAR and LTC by the end of the week of 9 November.

Payward fund buys AAVE as Aave Labs acquires Avon for fixed-rate lending

Two Aave headlines landed in consecutive days. On 5 November, Payward said Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, a Payward-affiliated fund, and its clients bought an undisclosed amount of AAVE on the secondary market, and that it may buy more, with Aave Labs welcoming the relationship.

No equity purchase was disclosed. In June, Stani Kulechov pushed back on a reported Payward bid for AAVE tokens and a 15% stake in Aave Labs, saying AAVE was not for sale at a steep discount.

A day later, Aave Labs acquired the team and technology behind Avon, including its fixed and floating-rate lending protocols and onchain order book. Founder Prince Sinha and Ayush Kaul join Aave Labs engineering, Omar el-Ashaal joins business development, and the team will work first on fixed-rate lending.

Aave says the network holds more than $33B in deposits and more than $13B in active loans. For how the protocol has evolved on the way to V4, see Aave V1 vs V2 vs V3 vs V4.

Circle reports Q3: $865M revenue as reserve income falls

Circle's Q3 2026 results showed total revenue and reserve income of $865M (+17% YoY), net income from continuing operations of $226M and adjusted EBITDA of $317M. Reserve income itself fell 8% to $658M as rates declined, while average USDC in circulation was $73.3B.

The quarter also included $182M from the ARC token presale, booked as revenue, which drove most of the growth. For where USDC sits in the wider market, see Stablecoin market growth in 2026.

FinCEN and the Fed withdraw the $250 Travel Rule proposal

On 6 November, FinCEN and the Federal Reserve Board withdrew their October 2020 proposal to cut the recordkeeping and Travel Rule threshold for cross-border transfers from $3,000 to $250.

The proposal would also have spelled out that the rules apply to convertible virtual currency. The withdrawal takes effect on publication in the Federal Register on 9 November, and the $3,000 threshold stays in place.

FinCEN cited the five years since the proposal and a changed industry, and said fresh public input would be needed before any similar rule. It follows October's withdrawal of the 2020 unhosted wallet proposal and the 2023 mixing proposal.

Name.com DNS hijack hits DeFi frontends

Between 30 and 31 October, attackers hijacked DNS records at registrar Name.com and pointed a dozen DeFi frontends to pages serving a wallet drainer, according to Blockaid.

Blockaid warned users not to sign transactions on the affected sites, and teams such as Kintsu told anyone who connected during the window to revoke approvals. Name.com later said 15 customer domains were affected and had been restored.

Smart contracts were not touched: the attack targeted the web layer only. For the bigger picture on attacks this year, see our breakdown of DeFi exploits in 2026 H1.

Chain Performance

Ethereum held $43.32B in DeFi TVL, down 0.9% on the week and still more than half of all DeFi value. Base was the only top-six chain to finish flat to positive (+0.2% to $5.89B). Tron (-5.8%) and Solana (-4.0%) posted the steepest declines, while BSC (-2.5%) and Bitcoin (-2.4%) tracked the broader market.

Top DeFi Protocols

The top ten moved in different directions. Aave V3 added 3.3% to $15.85B, with USDC deposits on Ethereum alone up about $500M, and Ethena USDe rose 9.4% to $4.95B, the biggest gain in the group.

Sky Lending fell 14.7% to $4.31B, the largest drop. Lido (-1.2%), SSV (-1.2%), EigenCloud (-1.8%) and ether.fi (-2.3%) eased with ETH, while Morpho Blue (-0.6%), Binance staked ETH (-0.3%) and SparkLend (+0.6%) were close to flat.

Looking Ahead

Binance's remaining withdrawals and the 44-token proof. Binance is targeting HYPE, INJ, APT, PLASMA, NEAR and LTC withdrawals by the end of this week. The zero-knowledge proof for the 4 November snapshot should let holders of all 44 covered tokens verify 1:1 backing once it is published, and the last 2% of replenishment depends on sourcing less liquid tokens.

Aave stablecoin collateral. Aave's stablecoin reserves are open for supply and borrowing again, but stablecoins were still set to a zero loan-to-value ratio, so they cannot back new borrowing, as of 1 November. Watch for the governance steps that restore it, and for the first details of fixed-rate products from the Avon team.

Travel Rule withdrawal goes live. The withdrawal of the $250 proposal takes effect when it is published in the Federal Register on 9 November. With three dormant crypto proposals pulled since early October, watch whether FinCEN replaces any of them with new proposals.

Read last week's edition: DeFi Weekly October 2026 Week 5: Binance Hack

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