Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement through the Korean Central News Agency denying that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was involved in the recent Binance hack that resulted in the loss of approximately $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency.
Kim criticized the FBI’s attribution of the attack to a North Korean‑backed hacking group, describing the claim as "absurd rhetoric" and a political provocation aimed at damaging North Korea’s international standing. She also suggested that an examination of where the stolen funds might ultimately be directed could provide clues about the true perpetrators, though no evidence was presented to support a U.S. involvement.
Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs previously attributed the Binance breach to the North Korean “TraderTraitor” group with high confidence, citing on‑chain and off‑chain data. Other investigators, including Chainalysis and independent analyst ZachXBT, have also linked the theft to North Korean actors, noting similarities to prior attacks such as the use of Tornado Cash for laundering and coordinated transaction signatures.
ZachXBT identified that funds from the Binance hack and a separate Bitget breach were combined at a shared address after passing through THORChain. Bitget’s CEO Gracy Chen earlier reported that preliminary findings connected IP addresses involved in the Bitget incident to VPN services associated with a North Korean group.
The FBI has previously blamed North Korea for a $1.5 billion hack of the Bybit platform in February 2025, an allegation that Kim also rejected as part of a broader pattern of U.S. accusations.
