FBI Links Binance Theft to North Korea-Associated Group

The FBI has linked the theft of billions of dollars in cryptocurrency from Binance to TraderTraitor, a group it associates with North Korea, and urged crypto services to block transactions tied to identified addresses. The bureau said its investigation found that the stolen assets were being converted primarily into Ethereum. It warned that the funds could be moved through decentralized finance platforms and instant-swap services, and asked exchanges, blockchain analytics firms and other organizations to help prevent laundering. The FBI’s attribution is an official assessment; Binance has not confirmed who carried out the theft. Binance said it had reserves in the same digital currencies as the stolen assets sufficient to cover 90% of the missing funds and pledged to reimburse customers in full. A separate report said withdrawals remained paused pending a security scan, but gave no date for its completion. Binance also said it had found no evidence that wallet private keys were leaked. The reported value of the theft varies by estimate. Binance put it at $6.3 billion, while TRM Labs estimated $6.36 billion and described the operation as the largest crypto theft on record....