Binance: FBI accuses North Korea of the ‘heist of the century’
US President Donald Trump, who regularly boasts of having a good personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has nevertheless expressed doubts about Pyongyang’s involvement
The FBI has formally accused North Korea of a record-breaking theft of $6.3 billion through a cyberattack on Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platform. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is responsible for the theft of over $6 billion in virtual assets from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which took place around 29 October 2026,” the FBI wrote in a statement.
US investigators claim to have identified the North Korean hacker group known as TraderTraitor as those responsible for the theft – which is unprecedented in scale – and to have discovered that the criminals are converting the stolen funds into Ether, the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network.
“It is anticipated that these assets will subsequently be subjected to further money-laundering operations through conversions via DeFi services and instant exchange platforms, in order to prepare them for the next stages of money laundering,” the statement reads.
DeFi (decentralised finance) encompasses financial services that operate on the blockchain. Instant exchange platforms, on the other hand, allow you to quickly convert one cryptocurrency into another without having to go through a bank or a traditional intermediary.
The FBI has published a list of around 500 Ethereum addresses “which the TraderTraitor actors are using to launder these stolen assets” and has asked cryptocurrency platforms, DeFi services and blockchain analytics firms to block transactions linked to those addresses.
