North Korea has denied stealing $6.3 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, calling allegations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation a serious political provocation.
Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued the denial on Tuesday, November 3, according to a report by Business Insider. She said the United States was attempting to label the country as a cybercriminal state in an effort to damage its international standing.
Kim also said the administration of US President Donald Trump had announced plans to confiscate illegally obtained cryptocurrency and use it as a strategic reserve. She added that information regarding who ultimately received the digital funds could serve as a clue to who conducted the cyberattack.
Disruptions at Binance
The political exchange followed days of severe disruption at Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume. The company disclosed on October 29 that it had detected unauthorized withdrawals totaling approximately $6.3 billion from its systems.
Binance initially suggested that the breach might have stemmed from a compromised laptop used by a DevOps engineer, who manages software and systems infrastructure, but it later clarified that other points of entry were detected. The company said it found no evidence that private wallet keys had leaked.
In response to the theft, the exchange temporarily suspended customer withdrawals and announced that it had frozen approximately $3 billion in assets while investigating the attack.
FBI attribution and customer withdrawals
The FBI formally blamed North Korea for the hack on October 31, designating the operation as TraderTraitor. The federal agency has previously used that designation to identify cryptocurrency thefts carried out by groups connected to North Korea.
Investigators with the bureau said they observed the perpetrators converting the stolen assets predominantly into Ethereum, the popular blockchain and cryptocurrency network. The FBI urged industry participants to block any transactions associated with the flagged digital wallet addresses.
Binance began a phased resumption of customer withdrawals on November 1. Within less than 10 hours of reopening the service, the platform recorded a net outflow of about $3.64 billion as account holders moved their funds.
