FBI Blames North Korea for $6B Binance Hack as Withdrawals Reopen
The FBI says North Korea's TraderTraitor stole more than $6 billion from Binance. The exchange has resumed withdrawals and reports a net outflow of $3.64 billion.
The FBI has confirmed that North Korean hackers it calls "TraderTraitor" stole more than $6 billion in virtual assets from Binance on or about October 29. In an alert published Saturday, the bureau backed up attributions made a day earlier by blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis.
The FBI, working with the Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, says the hackers are converting stolen assets mainly into Ethereum and are expected to launder them through DeFi and instant swap services. It urged node operators, instant exchanges, DeFi services and analytics firms to block transactions involving hundreds of Ethereum addresses, 19 Bitcoin addresses and one Solana address linked to the theft. The Secret Service said it worked with industry partners to freeze "a significant portion" of the stolen crypto within minutes of the attack.
Laundering already under way
Chainalysis said the hackers moved more than $500 million on Tron through over 1,000 addresses and more than 3,000 deposits. Most of those staging wallets are now drained, with funds sent through Chainflip, Relay, THORChain and NEAR to fresh wallets on Ethereum, Bitcoin and other chains. The launderers have begun moving onto Solana.
Withdrawals resume
Binance began phased withdrawals at 1 a.m. ET on Sunday. In the first nine and a half hours it processed $4.649 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits, a net outflow of about $3.64 billion, or 2.1% of the $171 billion in assets in its October 28 proof of reserves. The exchange said volumes have stabilised after an initial spike and expects to publish an updated reserves report Monday.
CEO Richard Teng said Binance had replenished about 95% of the affected assets and "will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, not our users." The exchange has since reopened more networks, including Zcash, TON and Sui, and restored fiat withdrawals in U.S. dollars, UAE dirhams, Vietnamese dong, Philippine pesos and Indonesian rupiah. Binance reportedly raised $6 billion from its corporate treasury, an insurance fund and its SAFU fund, and Circle reportedly froze more than $1.1 billion in USDC.
DefiLlama data put Binance's assets at about $127.6 billion on Monday, though wallet movements can include internal transfers. OKX and Bybit saw net inflows of about $450 million and $134 million. Spot Bitcoin ETFs shed $643.2 million on Friday, the first full session after the hack.
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Binance Hack: FBI Blames North Korea's TraderTraitor for $6B Theft
