This Week in Crypto (November 3–9): FinCEN Cuts MEXC Off Over $16.7B, an AI Selloff Drags Bitcoin to $73,700, and Crypto's $200M Midterm Bet Comes Up Empty

If last week was about one exchange getting robbed, this week was about every other exchange learning what the fallout looks like. The U.S. Treasury cut MEXC off from American banks over $16.7 billion in suspected illicit flows, Democrats swept both chambers of Congress and sent crypto's $200 million lobbying campaign home empty-handed, and an AI-sector meltdown dragged bitcoin to a two-month low. Meanwhile, the CFTC approved stock perpetual futures — and was sued hours later. This week in crypto was where the aftermath began. Here's everything that mattered.

The week at a glance

FinCEN cut MEXC off from U.S. banks over $16.7 billion in suspected illicit flows

On November 6, FinCEN issued a Section 9714 order designating MEXC Global as a "foreign financial institution of primary money laundering concern" — the first time the statute has been used against a crypto exchange. The order identified $16.7 billion in suspected illicit transactions between May 2021 and May 2026, including ~$1.5 billion tied to Russian sanctions evasion through Garantex and its successor Grinex, and roughly $1 billion in direct transactions with Iranian crypto exchanges. FinCEN also flagged ~$22 million moved for Iran's central bank and the Revolutionary Guard's Qods Force.

On X: @USTreasury — the order, part of "Operation Economic Outcast," also designated eight Canadian money services businesses enabling the Iranian regime.

Once the order takes effect — 30 days after Federal Register publication — U.S. financial institutions are barred from processing any transfers involving MEXC. OKX preemptively blocked MEXC-linked deposits before the effective date. Within 24 hours of the announcement, $126 million left the exchange.

On X: @usithetalk — MEXC vice-chairman: "MEXC is operating normally, and user assets remain secure."

The practical question for anyone holding funds on a sanctioned exchange is how quickly "operating normally" can change. The difference between a centralized exchange under sanction risk and self-custody becomes material fast when an order like this lands.

Democrats swept both chambers, and crypto's $200 million lobbying push came up empty

On November 3, voters gave Democrats 54 Senate seats and 225 House seats — control of both chambers for Donald Trump's final two years in office. The crypto industry had spent roughly $200 million, led by Fairshake PAC, on the theory that a friendly Congress was the shortest path to regulatory clarity. That theory died on election night.

On X: @coinbureau — "Elizabeth Warren, one of crypto's most vocal critics, is now in line to chair the Senate committee that advanced GENIUS and CLARITY."

The Clarity Act, which already failed a 49–50 cloture vote in September, is effectively dead in the new Congress. Warren's expected chairmanship of the Banking Committee signals a pivot toward consumer protection, stricter exchange oversight, and renewed scrutiny of conflicts of interest between public officials and crypto businesses. Grayscale offered the counterpoint: "85% of crypto activity is abroad," suggesting U.S. policy shifts matter less than the headlines imply. Whether that holds depends on how many of those offshore flows still touch American banks — a question the MEXC order answered one way.

Bitcoin hit a two-month low at $73,708 as an AI selloff collided with midterm fallout

Bitcoin reclaimed $80,000 briefly on November 4 as markets digested the election results — the Dow posted its best post-midterm day in 44 years. Then on November 5, the AI trade collapsed. Fears that a Democratic Congress would slow data-center permitting pulled the Nasdaq 100 down 6.4%, its worst single session since March 2020. NVIDIA fell 9%, erasing its year-to-date gains; Micron dropped 17.5%.

On X: @coinbureau — AI selloff data: "Bloom Energy −17.52%, AMD −13.01%, Vertiv −12.43%," with chip indices losing 12% collectively.

Bitcoin followed equities to $73,708 on November 6. Crypto liquidations topped $1 billion. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $1.28 billion in net outflows from November 2–6, with over $500 million leaving on November 6 alone. The Fear & Greed Index hit 25 — Extreme Fear — for the first time since August. Our guide on what triggers a crypto crash walks through how forced selling compounds once it starts. By November 8, BTC had stabilized near $75,855.

The CFTC approved stock perpetual futures, and Cboe and Citadel sued hours later

On November 3, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig announced that equity perpetual futures had been approved under Regulation 40.3 — the first time a crypto-native derivative structure has been cleared for traditional equities on U.S. exchanges. Kalshi listed its first four stock perps the same day.

On X: @ChairmanSelig — "This move reflects my commitment to ensuring that America's markets remain the most innovative, liquid, and well-regulated in the world."

The celebration lasted hours. The Capital Markets Alliance, backed by Cboe and Citadel Securities, filed suit in a New York federal court arguing the contracts are swaps, not futures, and therefore fall under SEC jurisdiction. The case turns on whether a perpetual contract on a security is itself a security — a classification question that could reshape how on-chain perpetual DEXs interact with U.S. regulation for years. With Democrats now controlling the committees that oversee both the CFTC and the SEC, the lawsuit may be the least of Selig's problems.

THORChain nodes voted to resume, processing $46 million in stolen Binance funds

And because last week's moral question was never going to resolve itself quietly: on November 3–4, THORChain node operators voted to restore cross-chain swaps on ETH and TRON — the two chains carrying the largest share of the Binance hack's stolen proceeds. The decision came days after the FBI's October 31 alert urging the protocol to block TraderTraitor-linked addresses.

THORChain's official frontend complied — the listed addresses are blocked. But the protocol's decentralized architecture means any node can process transactions independently of the frontend. Co-founder Chad Barraford told The Block that operators "hold no information beyond what is already public" and were expected to "resume trading as normal." In the first 72 hours after the Binance hack, THORChain processed over $46 million in stolen funds; North Korean hackers separately laundered ~$242 million via Tron. Our piece on why bridges keep getting hacked covers the structural incentive pattern underneath. Whether "permissionless" can coexist with "compliance" is now an operational question, not a theoretical one.

Also this week

• Vitalik Buterin argued on November 8 that ETH should be valued as a store of value, not a fee-burning token. He cited "CROPS" — censorship resistance, open source, privacy, security — as ETH's real value proposition in an "era of AI disruption." Bitcoiner Dan Held dismissed it as "ETH trying to pivot to Bitcoin's SoV narrative."
• Binance CFO Kaiser Ng departed on November 7, nine days after the record hack; Justin Yek named successor. Co-CEO Yi He said the transition was "planned over the last six months." Yek comes from Airwallex, Citi, and Morgan Stanley.
• Ex-FBI agent Patrick Yaroch pleaded guilty on November 7 to stealing $2.47 million in crypto from wallets tied to 35 investigations. He conducted ~100 illicit transfers starting in December 2024, sourcing funds from crime victims, nation-state actors, and an FBI-created wallet. Sentencing is set for March 4, 2027.
• Trump's 401(k) crypto rule reached the White House on November 5 for final review. A 2% allocation of America's $10.8 trillion in 401(k) assets would channel ~$216 billion into crypto. The OIRA review window runs up to 90 days.

What to watch next

Warren's Banking Committee chairmanship takes effect in January — her first hearing schedule will signal two years of crypto oversight direction. Watch the FinCEN order's Federal Register publication date for the MEXC enforcement clock, and the Cboe/Citadel lawsuit's first hearing for whether stock perps survive or get pulled. The 401(k) rule's OIRA review has a 90-day window, putting a decision around early 2027. For anyone re-evaluating where their assets sit after this week's enforcement actions, Coin98 Super Wallet generates keys on-device and supports self-custody across 100+ blockchains.

Last updated: November 2026

Sources: CoinDesk · The Block · CryptoNews · Cointelegraph · CryptoSlate · CNBC