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FBI Says North Korea’s TraderTraitor Group Stole $6.3 Billion From Binance

The FBI said on Saturday that North Korea was responsible for the theft of about $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance, naming the TraderTraitor hacking group and publishing wallet addresses for the industry to block.

By admin Nov. 1, 2026 · 6:43 AM ET 2 min read

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Saturday that North Korea was responsible for the theft of about $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in the largest single hack in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.

Binance had said it suffered unauthorized withdrawals of about $6.3 billion in an attack that exploited an engineer’s compromised laptop and a weakness in its transaction approval system. The breach occurred on October 29, according to the FBI, which has worked with the U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division since that day.

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How the FBI traced the theft

The FBI attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, which it described as one of North Korea’s elite hacking groups. The agency said it had observed TraderTraitor actors converting the stolen assets primarily into ether, and it expects further laundering through decentralized finance platforms and instant exchange services that convert the holdings into other cryptocurrencies.

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The agency published a list of ether, bitcoin and solana wallet addresses that the group has used or appears to be using. It urged THORNode operators, RPC node operators, instant exchanges, decentralized finance services, blockchain analytics firms and other digital asset service providers to block transactions with or derived from those addresses.

Gold-colored coins scattered on a dark desk beside a smartphone and the edge of a laptop

The investigation so far

North Korea had been suspected of orchestrating the breach since it occurred, according to the Seoul Economic Daily, but the FBI statement is the first official confirmation by the agency. The FBI also called for tips from the public, saying it remains committed to identifying, mitigating and disrupting North Korea’s illicit cyber activities and virtual asset theft.

Binance has said it replenished about 90% of the affected assets, as reported in our earlier report on the exchange’s recovery effort, and withdrawals were set to resume progressively from November 1.

Reporting based on coverage by Cointelegraph and the Seoul Economic Daily.

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