North Korea Denies $6.3 Billion Binance Hack, Calls US Claim Absurd

Photo: AFP/Jade Gao via Punch (file photo)

North Korea has denied it had anything to do with the $6.3 billion theft from crypto exchange Binance, calling the United States claim absurd. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday that Washington was trying to paint her country as a cyber crime state. The denial came days after the FBI blamed a North Korean hacking group for the biggest crypto heist on record.

Kim spoke in a written statement carried by the state news agency KCNA. Reuters reported that she called the US claim "absurd rhetoric and nothing new", and said it was a grave political provocation against North Korea. The BBC reported that she also called it a sinister attempt to damage Pyongyang's public image.

The row started with the attack itself. On 29 October, hackers drained about $6.3 billion in digital assets from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Blockchain firm TRM Labs put the figure at about $6.36 billion moved across 10 blockchains, most of it within about 20 minutes. On Saturday, the FBI said a North Korean state backed group called TraderTraitor was behind it, and urged crypto firms to block wallets linked to the group.

North Korea has denied this kind of claim many times before, and Tuesday was no different. Kim said the US misleads world opinion by acting as if every cyber crime in the world is Pyongyang's work. She added that it is the consistent stand of her government to oppose malicious acts in cyberspace, a line Pyongyang uses each time it is blamed for a hack.

There is one awkward detail for the FBI case. United States President Donald Trump himself sounded far less sure when reporters asked him about it at a Halloween party at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. "We don't know if it's North Korea," he said, adding that investigators were still learning about the case. That doubt sits oddly next to the FBI statement, and it is likely to be quoted back at Washington in the days ahead.

For Binance users, the practical side matters more than the blame game. Binance has already resumed withdrawals after covering about 95% of the stolen assets from its own funds, setting aside more than $6.34 billion for the losses. Customers still pulled out more than $3.6 billion when the exchange reopened after suspending transactions, and about $3 billion in affected assets has been frozen. The exchange says it is working with law enforcement and other partners to trace the rest.

This is not the first time TraderTraitor has been named. The same group, also known as the Lazarus Group, was blamed by the FBI for the $1.5 billion theft from the Bybit exchange in February 2025, which was the record heist until Binance. South Korea's spy agency estimated back in December 2022 that North Korean hackers had stolen 1.5 trillion won, about $1.1 billion, in crypto and other virtual assets over the previous five years. Experts say crypto theft has become a key source of foreign currency for a country under heavy sanctions, which is why each new hack draws the same denial from Pyongyang.

The story also landed on a busy day for North Korea. Pyongyang has been stepping up weapons tests in recent weeks, and on Tuesday it said it had tested a new cluster warhead for strategic cruise missiles. The original Binance hack, first reported here on 30 October, is still the largest crypto theft ever recorded, and the fight over who did it is now as public as the theft itself.

What this means in plain terms is simple. If you hold crypto on a big exchange, the Binance case shows your money can be covered even after a record theft, but it also shows how fast $6 billion can move, and how hard it is to prove, beyond doubt, who moved it.

Sources

• Reuters: North Korea says claims linking it to Binance heist are absurd rhetoric, KCNA says
• BBC via Daily Mirror: North Korea denies being behind record $6.3bn Binance hack
• Punch: North Korea rejects US accusation over $6.3bn Binance hack
• Economic Times (AP): North Korea denies involvement in $6 billion Binance hack

Watch for whether the FBI releases more proof linking TraderTraitor to the Binance wallets, and whether Binance recovers more of the frozen assets.

#Binance #NorthKorea #Crypto #Bitcoin #Hacking #Technology #BreakingNews #WorldNews