FBI blames North Korea for over $6 billion Binance crypto theft
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Washington: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has attributed the theft of more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance to North Korean hackers, warning that the stolen funds may be laundered through decentralised finance platforms and crypto swap services.
In a cyber alert, the FBI said the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was responsible for stealing virtual assets worth over $6 billion from the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on or around October 29, 2026.
The agency linked the operation to “TraderTraitor,” a cyber campaign previously associated with North Korean crypto thefts. Working with the US Secret Service and the IRS Criminal Investigation division, the FBI said it observed the hackers converting much of the stolen funds into Ethereum.
US authorities warned that the hackers were likely to move the assets further through decentralised finance platforms and exchange services that enable rapid conversion between digital currencies. They urged crypto exchanges, blockchain operators, analytics firms and other virtual asset service providers to block transactions linked to the hackers’ wallets.
The FBI’s alert follows an assessment by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, which had estimated the Binance loss at $6.36 billion and also attributed it to TraderTraitor.
Binance said it has now covered about 90 per cent of the losses arising from the security breach, which it earlier estimated at around $6.3 billion. The exchange said users would not bear any financial impact from the incident.
In an update on X, Binance said it had earmarked more than $6.34 billion from company funds to address the losses and had raised its coverage from roughly 80 per cent to 90 per cent of affected assets. It added that major digital assets, including Bitcoin, are currently backed on a one-to-one basis.
(Inputs from IANS)