Binance Says $3 Billion Frozen as North Korea Linked to $6.3 Billion Heist

Binance announced on Friday that it has begun recovering funds for its customers, working with blockchain partners to freeze approximately $3 billion in affected assets. This move follows a massive theft that U.S.-based blockchain intelligence firm TRM attributes to a hacking group known as TraderTraitor. The firm described the group as North Korea’s elite hacking unit.

The alleged heist totals an estimated $6.3 billion in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. TRM announced the findings on Thursday, identifying the attack as the largest cryptocurrency theft in history. The stolen funds were taken from Binance customers. The company said the recovery process started immediately after the incident was identified.

Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of Binance, posted on the social media platform X earlier in the week. He stated, “User funds are safe!” Zhao established Binance in 2017 after moving his family from China to Canada, where he had previously worked at McDonald’s. He later relocated the company to Japan and has since expanded operations to include plans for Jersey and Malta.

The exchange has grown to become the world’s largest crypto marketplace by trade volume. It surpassed competitors including Coinbase and FTX along the way. Forbes estimates Zhao’s personal wealth exceeds $100 billion. The company functions as an online meeting place for buying and selling digital currencies, operating without a physical headquarters.

Binance has faced intense scrutiny regarding its handling of crypto crimes. Regulators under the Biden administration accused the exchange of allowing trades worth hundreds of millions of dollars between U.S. users and users in Iran, violating sanctions. They also alleged the firm failed to report suspicious transactions involving Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades and al-Qaida. Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act in 2024 and spent four months in prison.

U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao in October of last year. Trump, who had received millions of dollars in campaign donations from Zhao and Binance, called the previous administration’s actions a war on crypto. Attorney Teresa Goody Guillen denied any quid pro quo arrangement. She stated in an email that claims of preferential financial treatment are a misstatement of the public record. The White House agreed that federal authorities had unfairly punished Zhao.

Experts say Pyongyang turns to cryptocurrency to obtain foreign currency while developing nuclear weapons and evading U.N. sanctions. A South Korean spy agency considers North Korean crypto hackers among the best in the world. The theft targets a company that has long been accused of profiting from criminal activity on its platform.