Binance customers pull billions as the exchange reopens after the record $6.3bn heist the FBI blames on North Korea
The FBI warned that those responsible for the Binance raid are converting stolen funds into Ethereum and laundering them through decentralised finance platforms.Kim Jong Un, whose country's TraderTraitor unit carried out the Binance raid using access gained through a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop, according to investigators.
Binance customers withdrew a net $3.6bn — about 2.1% of the exchange's $171bn in total assets — after the world's largest crypto exchange reopened in phases on Sunday, days after North Korea's Lazarus Group stole $6.3bn in what analysts call the biggest financial robbery in history. Binance co-CEO Richard Teng pledged the firm would cover all losses from company funds, saying 95% of stolen assets had already been replenished. Withdrawal volumes were stabilising by Sunday afternoon, the firm said, with deposit activity remaining "substantial."
The FBI named North Korea's TraderTraitor unit — part of Lazarus Group — as the culprit, and expects it to launder funds through DeFi and instant swap services.
Trump broke with his own FBI, saying at his Mar-a-Lago Halloween party: 'We don't know if it's North Korea' — just hours after the bureau's formal accusation.
The remaining 5% of stolen assets are less liquid tokens that may take longer to source, Teng warned, though customers will not bear any losses.
