FBI blames North Korea for record $6.3bn crypto heist

Crypto firm Binance says it has covered 90 percent of losses from the multibillion-dollar hack.

[Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters]

The FBI has linked North Korea to the theft of a record $6.3bn in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Malicious actors from North Korea were observed laundering the ⁠stolen assets ⁠by converting them primarily into the cryptocurrency Ethereum, ⁠the FBI said in a statement on Saturday.

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The US agency blamed the operation specifically on a group called TraderTraitor, the same group blamed for a $1.5bn theft from the Bybit platform in February last year.

According to the statement, the assets are expected to be “further laundered” in stages.

The FBI called on virtual asset service providers to block transactions being used in the latest laundering operation, providing the suspected digital addresses to watch for.

In a separate statement on Saturday, Binance said it has replaced 90 percent of the amount stolen by using company money to buy new tokens.

The remaining 10 percent consists of less liquid tokens, meaning they ⁠may take longer to buy, it added.

“We will continue to buy the remaining relevant token assets… until the covered amount reaches 100 [percent] for all tokens. Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users,” the company said on X.

The money spent re-buying tokens came from a $1bn Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), a Bitcoin reserve fund Binance ⁠holds to protect customers in the event of security ⁠breaches, as well as some of its Futures Insurance Fund and the company’s corporate treasury.

Crypto prices fell on Friday, as Binance, which runs the world’s largest crypto exchange, sought to reassure customers their funds were safe.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said on Friday that the breach was a “complex attack” involving a compromised laptop and malicious software designed to ⁠delete evidence of its activity, making it hard to trace and investigate.

After ⁠the hack, the exchange stopped allowing customers to withdraw their funds.

Binance said later on Saturday that it was on track to reopen withdrawals on Sunday.

Binance also announced the publication of a new proof-of-reserves snapshot, allowing users to independently verify that their assets were backed at a minimum 1:1 ratio.

加密货币公司币安表示，已弥补了数十亿美元黑客攻击造成的90%的损失。

[Dado Ruvic/图/路透社]

美国联邦调查局已将朝鲜与加密货币交易所币安创纪录的 63 亿美元虚拟资产被盗案联系起来。

美国联邦调查局周六在一份声明中表示，他们发现来自朝鲜的恶意行为者通过主要将赃物兑换成加密货币以太坊来洗钱。

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美国机构将此次行动归咎于一个名为 TraderTraitor 的组织，该组织也曾被指控在去年 2 月从 Bybit 平台窃取了 15 亿美元。

声明称，这些资产预计将分阶段进行“进一步洗钱”。

FBI呼吁虚拟资产服务提供商阻止用于最新洗钱行动的交易，并提供了需要密切关注的可疑数字地址。

币安在周六发布的另一份声明中表示，已使用公司资金购买新代币，弥补了被盗金额的 90%。

报告补充说，剩余的 10% 由流动性较差的代币组成，这意味着购买这些代币可能需要更长时间。

“我们将继续购买剩余的相关代币资产……直到所有代币的覆盖金额达到 100%。币安将承担这些被盗资金造成的经济损失，而不是我们的用户，”该公司在 X 上表示。

用于重新购买代币的资金来自币安持有的 10 亿美元用户安全资产基金 (SAFU)，该基金是币安为保护客户免受安全漏洞侵害而设立的比特币储备基金，此外还包括其期货保险基金和公司企业金库的部分资金。

周五，加密货币价格下跌，此前全球最大的加密货币交易所币安试图向客户保证他们的资金是安全的。

币安联席首席执行官 Richard Teng 周五表示，此次数据泄露是一次“复杂的攻击”，涉及一台被入侵的笔记本电脑和旨在删除其活动证据的恶意软件，使得追踪和调查变得困难。

黑客攻击发生后，该交易所停止允许客户提现资金。

币安周六晚些时候表示，预计将于周日重新开放提现服务。

币安还宣布发布新的储备金证明快照，使用户能够独立验证其资产是否至少以 1:1 的比例得到支持。