Customers pull $3.6bn from Binance as the exchange reopens after the $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 processed $4.6bn in withdrawals and $1bn in deposits on Sunday as the world's largest crypto exchange began a phased reopening, resulting in net outflows of $3.6bn — just 2.1% of its $171bn in assets under management. The exchange said withdrawal volumes were stabilising after an initial spike and that it had already covered 95% of the stolen assets using company funds to buy replacement tokens.
North Korea's Lazarus Group, operating as TraderTraitor, is already converting stolen assets into Ethereum and is expected to launder funds through smaller exchanges over months.
President Trump publicly disputed his own FBI's findings, saying at a Mar-a-Lago Halloween party: 'We don't know if it's North Korea.'
The same hackers pulled off a $1.5bn Bybit heist last year — analysts say Thursday's theft may be the largest financial robbery in history.
