The US Justice Department announced on November 12 that it has court approval to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion stolen from Binance in an October 29 hack. The FBI attributed the breach to a North Korean unit designated "TraderTraitor."
The $1.2 billion seizure order represents a portion of $2.7 billion that government and private-sector efforts have frozen so far. Assistant Attorney General Tysen Duva said the DOJ's Criminal Division "quickly and efficiently used its expertise to immediately halt about half of this historic breach."
Binance customers will not be directly affected by the theft. The exchange stated it has already replaced all tokens lost in the hack using its own treasury and insurance funds. Any assets the US eventually recovers and forfeits would not alter what users hold.
According to on-chain data cited by Onchain Lens and Arkham Intelligence, the total estimated haul reaches approximately $6.34 billion. Of this amount, roughly $2.85 billion remains accessible to the hackers, while an estimated $891 million may have already been moved or laundered. The remaining $2.60 billion is frozen.
The hackers have continued routing funds through cross-chain protocols, bridges, and mixers to evade seizure. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic tracked approximately 1,650 Bitcoin in new addresses by November 6, with some funds reaching the Tornado Cash mixer.
Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, Secret Service, and IRS-CI, have urged crypto service providers to block addresses linked to the laundering efforts. The DOJ indicated that recovery work remains ongoing as the investigation continues.
