Topic
north korea
20 stories
DOJ wins approval to seize $1.2B from the Binance hack and takes down a North Korean deepfake operation
U.S. prosecutors won court approval to seize $1.2 billion of the crypto stolen in October's $6 billion Binance hack and dismantled cloud servers behind a separate North Korean deepfake video-call scheme that took more than $400 million.
DOJ: North Korean Hackers Stole $400 Million Via Deepfake Video Calls, Moves to Seize $1.2 Billion From Binance Hack
The U.S. Justice Department says North Korean hackers stole over $400 million in crypto across 18 months using deepfakes and recorded webcam footage on video calls, and has now moved to seize $1.2 billion tied to the Binance breach.
Launderers behind the Binance hack are minting throwaway Elon and animal memecoins to move stolen NEAR, Elliptic says
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic says North Korea-linked launderers routed about $430,000 of NEAR stolen in the $6.4 billion Binance breach through six throwaway memecoins, reusing a laundering trick from the 2025 Bybit hack.
Elliptic: Binance hackers have swapped $124M of stolen altcoins into bitcoin, little cashed out so far
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic says attackers in last week's $6.43 billion Binance breach have converted about $124 million in stolen altcoins into bitcoin, while Binance moves to reopen more token withdrawals.
Half the $6.43B Binance Haul Is Still Unlaundered, Elliptic Says
Elliptic says roughly half of the $6.43 billion stolen from Binance on October 29 remains unlaundered, with $3.11 billion still held by the attacker and $2.85 billion frozen or seized.
North Korean hackers resume laundering Binance's stolen billions through THORChain as RUNE rises 10%
North Korea's TraderTraitor is routing proceeds of the $6.3 billion Binance hack through THORChain, swapping ether into unfreezable bitcoin, as RUNE jumped about 10% when the network resumed trading after an Oct. 31 halt.
Binance blames fake job interview and internal AI tool for $6.3 billion breach
Binance's own incident report blames a months-long North Korea-linked campaign — a fake job interview and compromised internal AI tooling — for the roughly $6.3 billion theft, as it reopens withdrawals and says it has recovered most assets.
North Korea Denies Binance Hack as FBI Pins $6.3B Theft on Pyongyang
North Korea's Kim Yo Jong rejected the FBI's finding that its hackers stole over $6 billion from Binance, as the exchange said deposits had begun outpacing withdrawals after $4.72 billion in net outflows.
Binance reopens withdrawals, logs $3.64 billion in net outflows days after $6.3 billion hack
Binance processed about $3.64 billion in net outflows in the first nine and a half hours after reopening withdrawals following last week's $6.3 billion hack, the exchange said.
FBI pins $6B Binance hack on North Korea's TraderTraitor, asks DeFi to block addresses
The FBI has attributed last week's roughly $6 billion Binance theft to North Korea's TraderTraitor group and is asking DeFi operators to blacklist hundreds of laundering addresses, as Binance says it has replaced 90% of the stolen funds.
Chainalysis says an AI-assisted hacker accessed customer names and emails
Chainalysis disclosed that an AI-assisted hacker breached its systems this month and accessed non-sensitive customer data — names, emails, user IDs and role labels — while the firm separately tracks the roughly $6.3 billion Binance theft.
How attackers drained an estimated $6.3 billion from Binance — and why Washington is now arguing about it
Attackers stole an estimated $6.3 billion from Binance on Oct. 29 by compromising its hot-wallet signing infrastructure; investigators blame North Korea, and Binance says it will cover the losses in full.
Binance pledges $6.34B of its own funds after record $6.3B hot-wallet theft
Binance says it has earmarked more than $6.34 billion of its own money to make users whole after roughly $6.3 billion was drained from its hot wallets, the largest crypto theft on record.
Binance hacker parks $1.4B in bitcoin across 19 wallets — and sits on it
An attacker who drained roughly 18,270 BTC (~$1.4 billion) from Binance split the haul into 19 wallets within minutes, and the coins hadn't moved as of Friday morning; blockchain firm TRM Labs tied the theft to North Korea.
Drift Says $285M Drain Was a Six-Month North Korean Infiltration
Drift Protocol says a North Korean state-affiliated group spent six months infiltrating its contributors before draining roughly $285 million from the Solana-based exchange, according to the protocol's own incident report.
ZachXBT says he spent $349,700 posing as a client to infiltrate a laundering ring tied to the Bybit hack
Onchain investigator ZachXBT says he posed as a client and fronted $349,700 in stablecoins to infiltrate a Chinese laundering network he alleges moved over $1 billion for North Korea's Lazarus Group, including funds from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack.
ZachXBT says he paid $350K into a North Korea-linked laundering ring to trace it from the inside
On-chain investigator ZachXBT says he sent $349,700 of his own money to a Chinese syndicate laundering for North Korea, posing as a client to trace Bybit hack proceeds and trigger freezes.
CertiK Pins ~$2B of 2025 Crypto Theft on North Korea, or About 60% of All Losses
Blockchain security firm CertiK says North Korea–linked hackers stole about $2.06 billion in crypto in 2025 — roughly 60% of all theft losses — and $6.75 billion across 263 incidents since 2016.
North Korea's Lazarus Group moved $30M+ through Hyperliquid while Washington courts the platform
Blockchain data from Arkham, reviewed by CoinDesk, shows wallets tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group sold over $30 million in bitcoin on Hyperliquid in three weeks, even as the Trump administration weighs bringing the platform onshore.
Drift's fix for its $295M hack: IOUs paid out of future revenue, possibly over eight years
Drift proposed compensating victims of April's $295 million hack with "recovery tokens" backed by future protocol revenue — a plan that, at 2025's earnings rate, could take roughly eight years to make users whole.