FBI blames North Korea for stolen billions from Binance in biggest hack in history

The theft of billions of dollars from Binance within a matter of minutes, the biggest cryptocurrency heist in history, was orchestrated by North Korean hackers, the FBI said on Saturday.

The bureau said in a statement that this week’s attack was tied to “malicious cyber activity” by an entity known as TraderTraitor, the same actors behind a US$1.5 billion Bybit hack last year.

The FBI asked cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain analytics companies and others to block transactions linked to various addresses to make sure the money is not laundered to cover up its origins.

It also said its probe found that TraderTraitor was converting stolen assets primarily into a cryptocurrency called ethereum.

The FBI expects that TraderTraitor will now attempt to convert the assets using DeFi and “instant swap services”.

Cryptocurrency expert Ari Redbord said he expects the hackers will break the stolen assets into pieces and try to launder them through smaller exchanges to evade detection, a process that could unfold over months.

“It’s bank robbery, in this case, at the speed of the internet,” said Redbord, chief policy officer at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.

“However, we can also track and trace those funds in real time in order to build investigations, to disrupt and to seize back funds.”

He added: “It’s just this cat and mouse game.”

On Thursday, US$6.3 billion in bitcoin and other digital currency was stolen from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, in what several cryptocurrency experts said bore the hallmarks of a North Korean hack.

The company said on Saturday that it had enough set aside in the same digital currency that was stolen to cover 90 per cent of the missing assets and promised that customers would be fully reimbursed.