North Korea has denied involvement in the $6.3 billion Binance hack, rejecting accusations from the US government. Kim Yo Jong, sister of leader Kim Jong Un, accused Washington of using the case to damage her country’s reputation.
In a statement carried by North Korea’s state news agency KCNA, Kim called the accusations a “grave political provocation.” She said the United States wanted to present North Korea as a country responsible for cybercrime around the world.
Kim also questioned what the US government planned to do with the recovered cryptocurrency. She said the people who receive the money could reveal Washington’s true intentions.
She further accused the United States of violating North Korea’s rights in cyberspace. Kim warned that Pyongyang would watch Washington’s actions and reconsider its position towards the US government.
However, Kim did not name another group responsible for the attack or provide evidence against the FBI’s findings. Her response came after the FBI linked the October 29 theft to North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking group.
FBI Attributes Binance Attack to North Korea TraderTraitor Group
The FBI named TraderTraitor as responsible for stealing more than $6 billion from Binance in an October 31 announcement. The agency linked the attack to North Korea and said hackers carried out the theft on October 29.
The FBI said the attackers were changing the stolen cryptocurrencies mainly into Ethereum. Investigators warned that the hackers could use decentralised finance platforms and instant swap services to move the money.
The agency also asked cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain companies and analytics firms to block transactions linked to the stolen funds.
Meanwhile, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic published its findings on November 2. The company estimated that hackers stole $6.43 billion and traced the funds across 11 blockchains.
Elliptic identified approximately 12,000 wallets involved in more than 40,000 transactions. Its investigation found that hackers initially moved much of the stolen cryptocurrency through approximately 7,700 Tron addresses.
The attackers later transferred funds from Tron to Ethereum using cross-chain bridges. The services allow users to move cryptocurrency between different blockchain networks.
Elliptic estimated that authorities and stablecoin issuers had frozen or seized approximately $2.85 billion. However, another $3.24 billion remained in wallets linked to the attack, mainly in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The firm also found that hackers had converted approximately $786 million in stolen stablecoins before issuers could freeze them. Separately, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs also linked the attack to TraderTraitor with high confidence.
Binance Replenishes 95% of Affected Assets
Binance said it had replaced approximately 95% of the affected customer assets using its own funds. The exchange started restoring cryptocurrency withdrawals on November 1 after suspending some services during its security response.
On November 2, Binance completed a Proof of Reserves check covering ten major cryptocurrencies. The exchange planned to restore more withdrawals from November 3, subject to security and operational checks.
