North Korean officials denied that the country was behind the recent theft of more than $6 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, describing the U.S. attribution as a political provocation.
Official response
Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean official, said the accusation was a "sinister" attempt to damage the nation’s image and warned that the United States was misleading international public opinion. She also suggested that the handling of any recovered crypto could reveal the true source of the hack.
U.S. attribution
The FBI, the Secret Service and blockchain‑analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis identified the hacking group known as TraderTraitor as responsible for the Binance theft. The same group was previously linked to a $1.5 billion hack of the Bybit exchange.
Fund movement
According to Chainalysis, the stolen assets are being laundered across roughly 12,000 wallets, with a new wallet created about every 25 seconds. About $2.85 billion of the $6.43 billion taken has been frozen or seized. Movement of the funds varies: more than $1 billion in ETH and roughly $1.42 billion in BTC have shown limited onward activity, while other portions are moving rapidly across chains.
Binance’s response
Binance reported net withdrawals of $4.72 billion since withdrawals resumed on Sunday, a fraction of its total assets of approximately $157 billion. By Monday evening, hourly deposits began to exceed withdrawals, indicating stabilizing user activity. The exchange restored withdrawals for several tokens on Ethereum and Solana and provided a zero‑knowledge proof confirming that balances of its ten largest tokens are fully backed.
Recovery outlook
Binance said it has covered about 95 % of the stolen assets, with the remaining portion consisting of less liquid tokens that require more time to replace. The exchange plans to conduct a broader asset snapshot later in the week.
