The $116 million Balancer exploit appears to have been months in the making, with the attacker utilizing Tornado Cash and advanced methods to evade detection. The onchain transactions of the exploiter behind the $116 million Balancer hack point to a sophisticated actor and extensive preparation that may have taken months to orchestrate without leaving a trace, according to new onchain analysis. The decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM) Balancer was exploited for around $116 million worth of digital assets on Monday. Blockchain data shows the attacker carefully funded their account using small 0.1 Ether (ETH) deposits from cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash to avoid detection. Conor Grogan, director at Coinbase, said the exploiter had at least 100 ETH stored in Tornado Cash smart contracts, indicating possible links to previous hacks. Read more
Romanian investors topped the commercial real estate acquisition ranking in January-September 2025, generating transactions worth EUR163.5 million, representing 32% of the total investment market volume, per the latest report by Fortim Trusted Advisors, a member of the BNP Paribas Real Estate Alliance.
The Chinese budget AI model QWEN3 was the only one to generate positive returns, while its more heavily funded competitors returned significant losses. Two Chinese artificial intelligence chatbots outperformed some of the world’s most advanced models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, in an autonomous cryptocurrency trading competition that ended Tuesday. Budget AI models QWEN3 MAX and DeepSeek finished first and second in the trading challenge, outpacing higher-profile and more expensive competitors. QWEN3 was the only AI chatbot to generate positive returns, making a total profit of $751 at a 7.5% return rate, while all other AI bots ended the competition in the red, according to data aggregator CoinGlass. Read more