North Korea dismisses FBI claim that its hackers stole more than $6bn from Binance as 'a trite provocation'
The theft, traced to a compromised engineer's laptop, has been formally attributed by the FBI to TraderTraitor, believed to be part of North Korea's Lazarus Group.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, called the FBI accusation "an absurd rhetoric," insisting Pyongyang has no connection to the record-breaking heist that stripped $6.3bn from the world's largest crypto exchange last Thursday. The denial came after the FBI formally attributed the theft to TraderTraitor, the same North Korean hacking group that stole $1.5bn from Bybit in February 2025. Binance has since covered 95% of stolen funds from company reserves, with the remaining 5% in less-liquid tokens still being sourced.
Customers pulled a net $3.64bn when withdrawals resumed Sunday, though outflows are stabilising — just 2.1% of Binance's $171bn in total assets.
Roughly $3bn of stolen funds were frozen, but hackers are actively laundering the rest across thousands of crypto addresses, Chainalysis warns.
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has warned scammers are "on overdrive," targeting panicked users with fake compensation offers and bogus security alerts.
