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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation said North Korea was responsible for a hacker attack on the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, which resulted in the theft of more than $6 billion.
“[...] The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is responsible for the theft of over $6 billion in virtual assets from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange that occurred on or around October 29, 2026. The FBI is classifying this malicious North Korean cyber activity as TraderTraitor,” the report said.
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, promised to fully compensate for losses resulting from the attack. On Saturday, she said that she had already covered 90% of the stolen amount.
“Binance will bear all financial consequences associated with the stolen funds; our users will not be affected,” the company said in a statement published on Saturday.
The FBI said it, together with the Secret Service and the IRS, determined that hackers were converting stolen assets primarily into the Ethereum cryptocurrency.
“It is expected that these funds will be subject to future laundering procedures,” the FBI writes on its website. It contains a call to block transactions, as well as a list of addresses that hackers use.
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As BBC technology correspondent Lily Jamali recalls, last year the FBI said North Korea was responsible for the theft of $1.5 billion from the Bybit crypto exchange.
This attack was also associated with the TraderTraitor group.
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According to the department, after this incident, TraderTraitor began laundering and distributing the stolen funds, converting them into bitcoins and other digital assets.
According to available information, Pyongyang is systematically developing its operations in cyberspace: the most promising North Korean university students are being recruited and sent to hacker groups supervised by the intelligence services.
As technology company experts note, some of these cyber operations are carried out from China, our correspondent writes.
One of the most high-profile cyber attacks in which the DPRK is suspected of involvement - although it was not aimed directly at the financial sector - was the hacking of Sony Pictures in 2014. The target was a film studio that had released the satirical film The Interview, which centers on a plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
As a result of the hack, thousands of emails exchanged between studio executives were exposed; their content put the participants in the correspondence in an extremely awkward position.
Sony Pictures then had to withdraw the film due to threats from hackers. The film was subsequently released in limited release.
North Korean authorities have consistently denied any involvement in hacking attacks.
The fact that state-linked hackers from the DPRK may be behind the hacker attack on Binance was previously reported by two large blockchain analytics companies - TRM Labs and Chainalysis.
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