The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says North Korea
is responsible for stealing more than $6 billion in virtual assets from
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
In a cybersecurity advisory published on October 31, the FBI
said the theft occurred on or about October 29 and was carried out by North
Korean state-sponsored cyber actors operating under the name TraderTraitor.
“The FBI, together with partners at the USSS and IRS-CI, has
observed TraderTraitor actors converting stolen assets primarily into Ethereum
(ETH). It is expected these assets will then be further laundered by converting
them using DeFi and instant swap services as they prepare them for further
laundering stages,” the FBI said.
The FBI urged virtual asset service providers, including
THORNode operators, RPC node operators, instant exchanges, decentralised
finance (DeFi) services and blockchain analytics firms, to block transactions
linked to the stolen funds.
The agency specifically asked the service providers to block
transactions “with or derived from addresses TraderTraitor actors are using to
launder these stolen assets”.
The FBI also published a list of Ethereum wallet addresses
linked to the theft, saying the addresses are “holding or have held assets from
the theft, and are operated by or closely connected to North Korean
TraderTraitor actors”.
The FBI also asked anyone with information about the
activity to contact its local field office or submit a report through its
internet crime complaint centre.
Changpeng Zhao, Binance founder, had credited the US law
enforcement agencies with helping to track and freeze assets connected to the
incident.
“US Law Enforcement agencies (FBI, USSS, IRS and more)
provided vital help in this incident, including tracking, freezing, etc,” Zhao
said.
He said a social media post could not fully express his
appreciation for the agencies, adding that their intervention helped explain
why the incident did not cause a bigger decline in bitcoin’s price.
“A tweet can’t fully express our gratitude. Many crypto bros
may not realize, a lot of the ‘why bitcoin didn’t drop more?’ credit goes to
them,” he said.
In an earlier report, Binance estimated losses from the hack
at $6.3 billion and pledged to cover all affected funds.
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