Binance Covers 90% of Losses as FBI Blames North Korea
The FBI said on Saturday that North Korea was responsible for the $6.3bn theft from Binance, naming the Lazarus Group, also known as TraderTraitor. The exchange says it has replenished 90% of the stolen assets from its own treasury and other funds, and remains on track to reopen withdrawals today.
“Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users,” the company said; it has set aside more than $6.34bn and warns the last 10% may take longer to source. Around $3bn had already been frozen with law enforcement and analytics firms. The theft is the largest on record, eclipsing the $1.5bn Bybit heist of 2025, also attributed by the FBI to North Korea, which has always denied involvement. Co-chief executive Richard Teng says more than one person was involved and the attackers used a “self-destruct mechanism” to hide their tracks. The reason it belongs in a geopolitical column: stolen cryptocurrency is a principal funding stream for Pyongyang’s weapons programmes.