US authorities have secured court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion stolen from Binance funds, the Department of Justice said in a Nov. 12 announcement, advancing recovery efforts from the October theft without resolving when or how the money might be returned.
The DOJ did not announce completed forfeiture or a timetable for returning the money. The court-covered assets sit within more than $2.7 billion frozen through combined US government and private-sector efforts.
Scope of court-backed action
The department used the wording “seize or restrain” and did not break down how much of the covered pool falls into each category. The authorization establishes the scope of court-backed action over part of the frozen assets, without establishing that the entire amount has already been seized.
More than $1.2 billion is within the frozen pool. The DOJ described forfeiture efforts as ongoing and left the eventual recipients and distribution route unspecified. It also said efforts to trace, freeze, seize and forfeit the stolen assets remained ongoing as the attackers continued laundering them through cryptocurrency bridges, mixers and exchanges.
Binance's loss pledge
Binance had already committed to covering its losses in a Nov. 3 incident report. The exchange promised to absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds and said it had set aside more than 100% of what it would need to cover the loss. That pledge concerns company funding and is separate from recovering the stolen assets; it is company-reported and not an independently audited reserves figure.
What remains unresolved
The DOJ attributes the theft of more than $6 billion on or about Oct. 29 to North Korean military actors known as TraderTraitor. The figures disclosed are lower bounds, not exact totals or a common valuation series.
Under DOJ guidance on compensation from forfeited assets, the government must identify, seize and forfeit assets before remission can occur. The Nov. 12 announcement leaves unanswered how much will ultimately be forfeited, who receives the assets, and when any return occurs.
