FBI says North Korea was behind $6.3 billion Binance crypto hack

Crypto exchange Binance said Saturday it was able to replace 90% of the amount stolen after a $6.3 billion hack of its platform that the FBI blamed on North Korea.

Binance said it was able to replace the funds recovered during the record hack by using the company’s money to purchase new tokens.

The remaining 10% are less liquid tokens, meaning they may take longer to purchase, it said in a statement on X.

“We have now replenished 90% of the stolen assets and are committed to covering the remaining 10%. Our users will not bear the financial impact of this incident,” co-CEO Richard Teng said on X.

Cryptocurrency prices fell on Friday as Binance – the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – sought to reassure customers that their funds were safe.

The FBI said Saturday that North Korea’s state-sponsored unit, known as TraderTraitor, was responsible for the attack.

Members of the unit were observed by law enforcement converting stolen assets into Ethereum cryptocurrency, the FBI said in a statement, adding that it expects “additional laundering” of assets through the use of associated technology.

Teng said Friday it was a “complex attack” involving a compromised laptop and malware designed to remove evidence of its activity, making it harder to trace and investigate.

After the hack, the exchange stopped allowing customers to withdraw their funds, but it said on Saturday that it was still on track to reopen withdrawals on Sunday.

Binance said it had set aside approximately $6.34 billion in corporate funds internally to cover losses.

The money spent buying back tokens came from using part of its $1 billion Secure User Asset Fund (SAFU), a reserve of bitcoins it holds to protect customers in the event of security breaches, as well as part of its term insurance fund and the company’s own cash, she said on X.

Binance also said it took a new snapshot of assets held on its platform on Saturday at 00:00 GMT, as part of its proof of reserves process.

Users holding the 10 tokens listed – BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD and ZEC – would be able to verify that their assets were collateralized at a minimum ratio of 1:1 once full proof was available, it said.