North Korea has denied the FBI's attribution of the roughly $6.3 billion Binance hack. Chainalysis, however, says stolen funds are mixing with proceeds of an earlier exploit it ties to Pyongyang. Binance says it has covered approximately 95% of the impacted amount.
North Korea rejected the FBI's attribution of the roughly $6.3 billion Binance hack in a Nov. 2 statement carried by state news agency KCNA. Kim Yo Jong, a department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said the government opposes malicious acts in cyberspace.
Kim called the U.S. claim "an absurd rhetoric and nothing new." Her statement did not address the commingling evidence cited by Chainalysis.
The FBI and Chainalysis point to North Korea
The FBI said in an Oct. 31 alert that North Korea was responsible for the theft on or about Oct. 29, and it named the activity TraderTraitor. The bureau said it and partner agencies had observed the attackers converting stolen assets primarily into ether.
Chainalysis said on Oct. 30 that it had high confidence in North Korea's responsibility. Its investigators said funds stolen from Binance were commingling with proceeds of September's Bitget exploit, which the firm attributed to North Korea.
Binance replaces stolen tokens
The FBI urged crypto businesses, DeFi services and infrastructure operators to block transactions involving the addresses listed in its alert. The alert does not announce a sanctions designation or authorize the return of frozen assets.
Binance estimated the loss at approximately $6.3 billion in its Oct. 30 update and said roughly $3 billion had been frozen onchain at that point. Recovering those proceeds is separate from the exchange's effort to replace stolen tokens using company funds.
In a Nov. 2 recovery update, Binance said it had covered approximately 95% of the impacted amount. The remaining 5% consisted of less-liquid tokens that take longer to source. The exchange planned its next phase of withdrawals for additional networks and assets on Nov. 3.
Source: The Defiant
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