FBI Attributes $6 Billion Binance Cryptocurrency Theft to North Korea

November 2, 2026 | By Semahegn Nigatu

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has attributed the theft of more than six billion US dollars in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, to North Korea, identifying the cyber operation as part of a hacking campaign known as TraderTraitor.

The theft occurred on or around October 29, 2026, according to an FBI cyber alert issued on Saturday. The agency said the North Korean-linked actors had begun converting the stolen digital assets primarily into Ethereum, raising concerns about further attempts to conceal the funds through cryptocurrency services.

The FBI, working with the US Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation division, said it expected the attackers to use decentralised finance platforms and instant cryptocurrency swap services to move the stolen assets through additional laundering channels.

The three US agencies have urged cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain infrastructure operators, decentralised finance platforms and digital asset service providers to block transactions involving wallet addresses linked to the stolen funds.

The FBI also published a list of cryptocurrency addresses associated with the operation, asking private-sector companies to identify and prevent transactions involving assets connected to the North Korean actors.

The incident adds to a series of major cryptocurrency thefts attributed to North Korean-linked hacking groups. The TraderTraitor name has previously been associated with cyber operations targeting digital asset platforms, including the 1.5 billion US dollars Bybit theft in 2025, according to the Associated Press.

Binance said it had sufficient reserves in the same digital assets to cover 90 percent of the missing funds and pledged to reimburse affected customers in full, the Associated Press reported.

The latest theft highlights the exposure of cryptocurrency exchanges to large-scale cyberattacks and the challenges facing financial institutions and regulators in tracing stolen digital assets across decentralised platforms.

The FBI said its investigation was part of wider efforts to identify and disrupt North Korea's illicit cyber activities and cryptocurrency theft operations.

Source: FSX Business News