FBI Links North Korea-Aligned TraderTraitor to $6.43 Billion Binance Crypto Theft
Roughly $2.85 billion of the stolen funds has been frozen on-chain, while Binance resumes withdrawals in stages.
US investigators have tied the theft of more than $6 billion in digital assets to TraderTraitor, a hacking group the FBI links to North Korea and that is also tracked under several other names. The FBI, Secret Service and IRS-CI say the group has been converting the stolen funds mainly into Ether, with laundering through DeFi and instant-swap services expected next, and the agency has published wallet addresses it believes are involved. Binance, the exchange hit by the incident, has begun resuming withdrawals in stages while keeping deposits open. At roughly $6.43 billion, the haul exceeds the $1.46 billion taken from Bybit in February 2025 and stands as the largest crypto theft on record. About $2.85 billion of it has been frozen on-chain by Tether, Circle, Ripple, Arbitrum and Optimism. Separately, security firms report the group is using trojanized Terraform providers and fake recruiter personas aimed at developers and people in blockchain and AI to deliver malware.
Why it matters
The theft is the largest crypto heist on record, well above the $1.46 billion taken from Bybit in February 2025, and it shows how a state-aligned group can move large sums across exchanges and blockchains. For exchange users, the staged reopening of withdrawals is the most immediate change. For the wider industry, the freezes by stablecoin issuers and layer-two networks show that some assets can be stopped in transit, while the lures aimed at developers and people working in blockchain and AI show that attackers are targeting the people who build and maintain these systems, not only the platforms that hold the money.
Series Binance crypto theft breach
- Binance resumes withdrawals after $6.3 billion breach, says 95% of stolen assets are covered
- FBI Links North Korea-Aligned TraderTraitor to $6.43 Billion Binance Crypto Theft
- Binance halts withdrawals after breach touching about $6.3 billion in crypto
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