On October 31st, Bitcoin's white paper celebrated its 18th anniversary, once again drawing attention to the concept proposed by Satoshi Nakamoto that allows for payments to be completed without the need for a trusted intermediary. Just a few days prior to that, Binance reported a theft incident involving $6.3 billion.

On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin white paper through a cryptography mailing list. This nine-page document proposed a solution to prevent double-spending without relying on banks or central monetary authorities.

• Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper on October 31, 2008, through a cryptography mailing list.
• This nine-page document proposes ways to prevent double spending without relying on banks or central coinage authorities.
• Binance has pledged to compensate for the losses after attackers transferred billions of dollars from their cryptocurrency wallets
• The definitions of responsibilities for private key protection vary between self-hosted supporters and guidelines for American investors.

Satoshi Nakamoto's original announcement is preserved in a mailing list archive, describing an electronic cash system that allows people to trade directly without the need for a trusted third party. This email was sent at 2:10 PM Eastern Time on October 31, 2008, and included a link to a paper titled "Bitcoin : A Peer - to - Peer Electronic Cash System".

18 years later, anniversary posts once again focus on this initial commitment, while the industry is also dealing with another major security incident involving exchanges.

Bitcoin Archive shared a picture of the original email, with the caption "Bitcoin for 18 years." Another anniversary post by Lucky celebrated the permission-free participation and verification, describing Bitcoin as a global financial movement.

The Bitcoin white paper proposes a shared payment history.

In a nine-page document, the white paper attempts to address a practical issue faced by digital currencies: the recipient needs to ensure that the payer has not spent the same funds elsewhere, yet they do not want to rely on a centralized company to verify each transaction individually.

Satoshi Nakamoto proposed public broadcasting of transactions and the use of proof of work to determine the order of transactions. Participants would accept valid transactions and continue to build on the chain with the greatest cumulative work. To modify an earlier payment, it would be necessary to redo the work required to protect that payment and catch up with the honest network.

This scheme also includes a reward mechanism for participants in system security, with newly issued tokens and transaction fees providing incentives. Its security model relies on the fact that the total computing power held by honest participants exceeds that of colluding attackers.

Privacy also has its limitations in this public ledger. The white paper suggests separating public keys from real identities in the privacy section and using new key pairs. It also acknowledges that associations between transactions may expose other payments by the same owner.

The 2008 banking crisis serves as the backdrop.

At the time this paper was published, the financial crisis had already caused several large institutions to collapse and triggered unprecedented government intervention.

According to historical records of the Federal Reserve, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008. The following day, the New York Fed provided support to the insurance company AIG. Earlier on, the New York Fed had also assisted in financing JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of Bear Stearns.

In his introduction, Satoshi Nakamoto focused on discussing the costs and weaknesses of relying on financial institutions to handle internet payments, including transaction reversals, dispute resolution, fraud, as well as the difficulty of making small payments economically viable.

This document proposes a payment mechanism based on cryptographic verification and does not address how to regulate exchanges or how to provide guarantees for the funds of customers engaged in cryptocurrency business.

Binance Invaded, Drawing Further Attention to Exchange Custody Issues

According to previous reports by crypto.news, Binance estimates that the wallet theft on October 29th affected assets worth $6.3 billion. The exchange has pledged to compensate for the losses through its user security asset fund and company resources.

In the update on October 30th, Binance indicated that more than $6.34 billion has been reserved, including over $5 billion in token assets already held. The company stated that the remaining amount is being acquired through market and over-the-counter channels.

Binance indicates that unauthorized funds were transferred from their hot wallet, and investigations are underway to verify multiple points of intrusion. The company stated that investigators have not found any evidence that the wallet private keys have been leaked.

Prior to this theft incident, concerns regarding custody issues had already arisen. In a letter dated October 22nd, Jameson Lopp, the Chief Security Officer of Casa, defended Bitcoin's self-custody in response to recent wallet incidents. He argued that shifting to ETF or managed custody would place investors in a position where they rely on institutions to safeguard their assets. Casa offers assisted self-custody services.

U.S. guidelines explain who controls the keys

In a statement in December 2025, the Investor Education Office of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlined the responsibilities of various parties under different custody arrangements.

In self-hosted mode, investors manage their private keys themselves and are responsible for protecting access rights. Losing the keys or having their wallets compromised can result in permanent inability to access their assets.

In the case of third-party hosting, the keys are controlled by exchanges or other service providers. The announcement warns that if such providers suffer a hacker attack, shut down, or go bankrupt, customers may lose access to their funds.

The checklist requires investors to understand whether the custodian has insurance coverage, whether it holds customer assets in a mixed manner, whether it lends or deposits these assets, or whether it outsources storage. It recommends that investors review the insurance terms and inquire who has access to these keys.