Trump disputes the FBI's finding that North Korea stole $6.3bn from Binance in the biggest crypto heist in history
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.
Trump publicly contradicted his own FBI director Kash Patel just hours after the bureau formally accused North Korea's TraderTraitor hacking unit of pulling off the $6.3bn Binance theft. Speaking to reporters at a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night, Trump said 'we don't know if it's North Korea' and added his administration was still 'learning about' the attack.
The FBI, working alongside the Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, said TraderTraitor — part of the wider Lazarus Group — drained $6.3bn from Binance wallets across ten blockchains in roughly 20 minutes.
Trump added that if North Korea is found responsible, 'we'll talk to them about it' — a striking contrast to the FBI's unequivocal statement naming Pyongyang.
Binance says it has already replenished 90% of stolen assets from company funds and promised customers full reimbursement, with trading expected to resume within days.
