FBI Blames North Korea for $6B Binance Hack as Exchange Reopens Withdrawals

In brief

• The FBI said North Korea's TraderTraitor was responsible for the theft of more than $6 billion from Binance, and published hundreds of addresses linked to the hack.
• Binance began restoring withdrawals on Sunday, processing $4.65 billion in withdrawals and $1.01 billion in deposits in the first nine and a half hours.
• The exchange said the net outflow represented 2.1% of its $171 billion in assets, and it has since reopened fiat withdrawals, including U.S. dollars.

The FBI has confirmed that North Korea was behind last week's theft of more than $6 billion from Binance, as the exchange began reopening withdrawals and reported billions of dollars leaving the platform.

In an alert published on Saturday, the FBI said the attack was carried out by North Korean hackers it refers to as "TraderTraitor," confirming the attribution blockchain analytics firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis made on Friday.

The FBI, together with the Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, has seen the hackers converting stolen assets mainly into Ethereum, and expects them to launder the funds further through DeFi and instant swap services, the bureau said. It urged node operators, instant exchanges, DeFi services, blockchain analytics firms and other crypto businesses to block transactions involving hundreds of Ethereum addresses, 19 Bitcoin addresses and one Solana address it linked to the theft.