North Korea has denied involvement in the theft of $6.3 billion from Binance, calling the FBI’s accusation “absurd rhetoric” and a political provocation. The FBI attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a hacking group linked to North Korea that has also been accused of stealing $1.5 billion from the Bybit exchange in February 2025.
Kim Yo-Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, said the accusation showed that Washington remained hostile to Pyongyang, according to a report published Tuesday by state news agency KCNA. She rejected the claim that North Korea was responsible for cybercrimes around the world.
Cybersecurity specialists say North Korean hackers are among the most active cryptocurrency thieves. Elliptic estimates that groups linked to North Korea stole $7.6 billion in cryptocurrency this year, a record amount. The North Korean government denies allegations that it is involved in cryptocurrency theft and other cybercrimes.
Analysts in Seoul said Pyongyang’s swift response may reflect concern that the accusation could prompt tougher measures against revenue sources the country is accused of using to fund its weapons programs. Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said cryptocurrency theft had become a major source of funds for North Korea amid existing sanctions. Further US action targeting cryptocurrency wallets, money-laundering networks and exchanges could disrupt that income, he said.
South Korea’s central bank estimated North Korea’s 2025 gross domestic product at 47.18 trillion won, or $35.09 billion. The alleged Binance theft would therefore be equivalent to about one-sixth of the country’s estimated economic output.
Chainalysis estimated that North Korea was linked to 89% of cryptocurrency losses from hacks in 2026, up from 15% in 2021. The company also put the average reported loss per attack at $185.65 million in 2026, compared with $50.65 million in 2021. Alec Zebrick, a senior manager for Asia-Pacific global services at Chainalysis, said attackers may be targeting larger exchanges because the potential rewards are high.
Analysts told the Financial Times that laundering the stolen $6.3 billion could take months. The stolen tokens remain visible on public blockchains, but the attackers have begun moving them in small amounts through multiple platforms and thousands of new wallets to make the flow of funds harder to trace.
The hackers are using decentralized finance lending markets and cryptocurrency exchange services to convert the stolen tokens into other assets. Elliptic said that by the weekend, every dollar in tokens laundered through the Tron blockchain had been moved nine times. At the height of activity on Saturday, the company observed one transaction every three seconds.
Binance is investigating how its systems were compromised and is working with the FBI and blockchain analytics firms to track the funds. The exchange has told users it will reimburse all stolen tokens using its own resources, including about $1 billion in bitcoin held in its emergency fund and a portion of its token-denominated revenue. Binance co-CEO Richard Tang said Tuesday that 95% of the affected tokens had already been replaced and that the company was financially able to cover the loss.
Sources: Folha Mercado.