North Korea has denied responsibility for the $6 billion-plus theft from Binance, days after the FBI blamed Pyongyang for the largest crypto hack on record.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un and a senior Workers’ Party official, issued the statement on Monday through the state-run Korean Central News Agency. She said the FBI is trying to brand the country a “cyber criminal state” and dismissed its claim that a hacking group backed by Pyongyang was involved.
She also pointed to the 2025 Bybit hack, which the US likewise attributed to North Korea, and accused Washington of blaming Pyongyang for cybercrime worldwide.
She then suggested a motive. Because the current US administration has said it would seize stolen crypto for a strategic reserve, she argued, observers should ask who ends up with the recovered funds, which she said could reveal who is behind the hack.
She added that Pyongyang is “closely monitoring” U.S. provocations and has “issues to reconsider” about American hostility. The FBI did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for comment.
Read More: Binance Hack Sparks $5.9bn Theft Estimate, Triggers Crypto Market Decline
The bureau issued an alert Saturday, jointly with the Secret Service and the IRS’s Criminal Investigation division. It said North Korea was behind the theft of more than $6 billion from the world’s largest crypto exchange on or about October 29.
It tracks the activity under the name “TraderTraitor,” the same label it used for the $1.5 billion Bybit theft in February 2025. Investigators say they have watched the attackers convert the stolen assets mainly into Ether, and they expect the funds to be moved through DeFi platforms and instant swap services.
The alert lists hundreds of Ethereum and bitcoin addresses and urges exchanges and analytics firms to block them. Three blockchain firms, including TRM Labs, had already linked the attack to North Korean actors. TRM said the attacker used the EIP-7702 standard to turn a Binance hot wallet into a sweeper under its control.
Binance has said attackers used a compromised employee laptop to submit unauthorized withdrawals. It puts the impact at about $6.3 billion and says roughly $3 billion of the stolen funds was frozen on-chain.
On Monday, the exchange published its first proof of reserves since the breach. It said it had replenished about 95% of the affected assets with its own funds, and that users will not bear the loss. It has said withdrawals are on track to resume within its stated timeframe.
