On a Saturday night, far from any newsroom, a question about the largest cryptocurrency theft on record received an answer that quietly sat apart from the official word. The FBI has linked the billions taken from Binance to North Korean hackers it calls TraderTraitor, the same group it blames for last year's Bybit heist, while the president, at a Halloween gathering in Florida, said the origin was still unknown. Such thefts have become a familiar chapter in the long story of money moving faster than the institutions meant to guard it, and what happens next depends on whether the trail can be f
FBI Attributes $6.3 Billion Binance Hack to North Korea as Trump Questions Evidence
Bank robbery at the speed of the Internet
Mark
The FBI named North Korea on Saturday. Why does the TraderTraitor link matter so much?
Mimi
Because it connects this to the $1.5 billion Bybit hack last year. The FBI is saying the same actors did both, so this is a pattern, not a one-off.
Mark
And then Trump says nobody knows if it's North Korea.
Mimi
Right, at a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago. He said "we don't know if it's North Korea," though he allowed it could be determined later that it was.
Luke
Worth being plain about what that is. The FBI attribution is the bureau's own finding, stated in its statement. We haven't been shown the evidence behind it. Trump's remark is an offhand answer to reporters, not a rebuttal with anything attached.
Mark
What are investigators doing now?
Mimi
Asking exchanges and analytics firms to block transactions tied to certain addresses. The money is being converted mostly into ethereum, and the FBI expects DeFi and instant swap services next.
Luke
That expectation is a prediction, not an observation. The ethereum conversion is what the probe found; the next step is what they anticipate.
Mark
Ari Redbord says this could take months.
Mimi
He expects the funds to be broken up and sent through smaller exchanges. But he also says they can be traced in real time, which is how seizures happen.
Luke
And that's one expert's expectation. Nothing here says how much will actually be recovered. Binance's 90 per cent reserve claim is also the company's own statement, and the full reimbursement is a promise, not yet a completed fact.
El Pulso
- Billions vanished from the world's largest crypto exchange within minutes, leaving customers and markets uneasy.
- The FBI has named North Korean hackers, while the president publicly declined to confirm the attribution.
- Investigators are asking exchanges and analytics firms to block addresses linked to the stolen assets.
- The hackers are expected to shift funds through DeFi platforms and instant swaps, a process that could drag on for months.
- Binance says it holds enough reserves to cover 90 per cent of the losses and will fully reimburse customers.
On a Saturday night, far from any newsroom, a question about the largest cryptocurrency theft on record received an answer that quietly sat apart from the official word. The FBI has linked the billions taken from Binance to North Korean hackers it calls TraderTraitor, the same group it blames for last year's Bybit heist, while the president, at a Halloween gathering in Florida, said the origin was still unknown. Such thefts have become a familiar chapter in the long story of money moving faster than the institutions meant to guard it, and what happens next depends on whether the trail can be followed before the stolen funds disappear into the quieter corners of the digital economy.
On Saturday night, at a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, President Donald Trump was asked about the largest cryptocurrency theft ever recorded. His answer ran against what the FBI had said only hours earlier. "We don't know if it's North Korea," he told reporters, adding that it could still turn out to be.
The bureau had been unambiguous. It said billions of dollars, drained from Binance in a matter of minutes, were taken by North Korean hackers operating under the name TraderTraitor, the same group it holds responsible for last year's $1.5 billion Bybit hack. The theft happened on Thursday, and crypto experts had suspected a North Korean hand almost from the start.
The investigation found the stolen assets were being converted mainly into ethereum. The FBI expects the next step to be moving the money through decentralized finance platforms and instant swap services, and has asked exchanges and blockchain analytics firms to block transactions tied to identified addresses.
Ari Redbord of TRM Labs expects the funds to be split into smaller pieces and pushed through lesser-known exchanges, a effort that could take months. He called it bank robbery at the speed of the internet, but noted the same technology that moves the money also lets investigators track it in real time.
For Binance's customers, the company offered reassurance, saying it holds enough of the stolen digital currency to cover 90 per cent of the missing assets and promising full reimbursement.
Two threads now run side by side: the laundering effort and the blocking requests meant to stop it, and the public gap between the FBI's attribution and the president's remarks. What comes next will show whether that gap closes and how much of the money can be traced and frozen.
On Saturday night, at a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, President Donald Trump was asked about the largest cryptocurrency theft ever recorded. His answer ran against what the FBI had said hours earlier. "I'm not concerned. We're learning about it," he told reporters. "We don't know if it's North Korea." He added that it could still turn out to be.
The bureau's statement had been unambiguous. It said the attack on Binance, in which billions of dollars left the exchange within a matter of minutes, was orchestrated by North Korean hackers. The FBI tied the theft to "malicious cyber activity" by an entity it calls TraderTraitor, the same actors it holds responsible for the $1.5 billion hack of the exchange Bybit last year.
The theft itself happened on Thursday. A total of $6.3 billion in bitcoin and other digital currency was taken from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Several crypto experts said at the time that the attack bore the hallmarks of a North Korean operation, which was an early signal of where the FBI's conclusion would land.
The bureau's investigation found that TraderTraitor was converting the stolen assets mainly into ethereum. The FBI expects the group's next step to be moving the money through decentralized finance platforms, known as DeFi, and through what it called "instant swap services." It asked crypto exchanges, blockchain analytics companies and others to block transactions tied to a set of addresses it identified, so the funds cannot be laundered and their origins hidden.
Ari Redbord, chief policy officer at the blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, expects the hackers to split the assets into smaller pieces and try to run them through smaller exchanges to avoid detection. He said that process could stretch over months. "It's bank robbery, in this case, at the speed of the Internet," he said. But the same technology that moves the money, he noted, lets investigators follow it: "we can also track and trace those funds in real time in order to build investigations, to disrupt and to seize back funds." He described the contest as "just this cat and mouse game."
For Binance's customers, the company offered reassurance on Saturday. It said it holds enough in the same digital currency that was stolen to cover 90 per cent of the missing assets, and it promised that customers would be fully reimbursed.
Two things now run in parallel. One is the laundering effort the FBI expects, and the blocking requests meant to frustrate it. The other is the public gap between the bureau's attribution and the president's remarks. Trump left room for the FBI's conclusion to be confirmed, so what to watch is whether the administration's public position shifts and how much of the stolen money investigators can trace and freeze in the coming months.
Citas Notables
We don't know if it's North Korea.— President Donald Trump, at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night
It's bank robbery, in this case, at the speed of the Internet.— Ari Redbord, chief policy officer, TRM Labs
Quieres la nota completa?
Lee el original en Bnn Bloomberg ↗
Politics & Governance