EP 34 · 2026-11-02 · ~16 min · punch-up PASS
“Five Percent of the Time”
Sam Altman says your home computer wastes RAM it only uses five percent of the time, and Chip reveals he keeps his in his head, right next to the thoughts. Brazil's largest crypto exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, halts withdrawals after more than $40 million is drained across ten chains. Plus: the night before the midterms, New Jersey drops its Coinbase case and the crypto PACs back both parties; Morgan Stanley cuts its Coinbase target in half; and Karl Bushby walks home after 28 years.
Running order
- 01SEGMENT A — LEAD“Mercado Bitcoin Drained”PROVEN
- 02SEGMENT B“Altman Wants the RAM”PROVEN
- 03SEGMENT C“The Vote”REPORTED
- 04MONEY DESK“Coinbase Cut in Half”REPORTED
- 05ONE MORE THING“Home After 28 Years”REPORTED
The Receipts
every claim, dated + attributedSegment A
PROVENBrazil's Mercado Bitcoin paused deposits and withdrawals after a security incident; Hypernative flagged more than $40 million in suspicious transfers across at least 10 chains and analysts estimate more than $46 million; Certik's Dickson Wu says attackers picked at eight small chains for four hours before the main hot wallets, and that funds kept moving after the pause; Tether froze more than 4.5 million USDT and, with Circle, about $6.2 million; the exchange says customers lost nothing and no data leaked; 4.5 million users as of July
- ▸Cointelegraph2026-11-02
- ▸Decrypt2026-11-02
- ▸CoinDesk2026-11-02
- ▸The Block2026-11-02
Segment B
PROVENSam Altman said on the Cheeky Pint podcast that it is "quite terrible" for the world's limited DRAM to sit in personal computers used 5% of the time rather than in data centers; Samsung and SK Hynix have reserved much of the world's RAM output for cloud operators and projects like Stargate; Elon Musk replied on X, "The people deserve to have their RAM too!"
Segment C
REPORTEDAhead of the Nov. 3 US midterms, New Jersey rescinded its 2023 Coinbase staking order and $5 million penalty without a ruling on the merits, while California, Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington continue their cases; Fairshake and affiliated super PACs back 19 Republicans and 14 Democrats in House races; Stand With Crypto's A-rated members of Congress rose to 332 from 96 (per Reuters)
- ▸Cointelegraph2026-11-02
Money Desk
PROVENMorgan Stanley's Michael Cyprys downgraded Coinbase and cut its price target from $258 to $120 (about 53%), citing weak trading activity, a slower earnings recovery and uncertainty after the Binance hack; Q3 net revenue fell about 34% to $1.16 billion
- ▸Cointelegraph2026-11-02
- ▸CoinDesk2026-11-02
One More Thing
REPORTEDKarl Bushby, 56, a former paratrooper, returned to his family's home in Britain after 28 years as the first person to walk continuously around the world: from the southern tip of Chile in November 1998, 36,000 miles, four continents, 29 countries; arrested in Russia as a suspected spy, met a polar bear, held at gunpoint; Werner Herzog attended and plans a documentary
- ▸UPI2026-11-02
Spot an error? Corrections are canon — send a receipt and it gets carried forward.