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Federal authorities and private-sector partners have frozen more than $2.7 billion in cryptocurrency stolen during a massive North Korean cyberattack on Binance, as the exchange said it had fully covered assets affected by the multibillion-dollar breach last month.
The Justice Department said Thursday that the frozen funds were part of more than $6 billion in digital assets stolen from Binance during an Oct. 29 cyberattack attributed to North Korean hackers.
Federal officials have also obtained court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion of those assets as investigators continue efforts to trace and recover the remaining funds stolen from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Binance separately announced that it had completed covering assets affected by the security incident, which had an estimated total impact of approximately $6.3 billion, and published an updated Proof of Reserves snapshot.
BINANCE CO-CEO SAYS CUSTOMERS WON’T LOSE A DIME AFTER MASSIVE $6B HEIST
“To our users and community: thank you for your patience and understanding,” Binance wrote on X.
Federal investigators attributed the theft to North Korean military hackers operating under the name “TraderTraitor.”
The Justice Department said the group stole more than $6 billion in virtual assets from the exchange on or around Oct. 29 in what has been described as one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts on record.
Authorities said the hackers have continued attempting to move stolen funds through cryptocurrency exchanges, bridges and mixing services designed to obscure the movement of digital assets.
NORTH KOREA RESPONSIBLE FOR $6 BILLION BINANCE CRYPTOCURRENCY HACK, FBI SAYS
“By springing into action at a moment’s notice, we worked together to freeze this massive criminal fraud in its tracks,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement, adding that authorities had secured court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion in stolen assets.
Binance co-CEO Richard Teng previously told FOX Business that the company had closed the entry points exploited by the hackers and rebuilt affected systems.
The exchange said the attack began with a fraudulent job interview that compromised an employee’s computer before hackers exploited internal systems to execute unauthorized cryptocurrency transactions.
The update came as the Justice Department separately announced that investigators disrupted a North Korean hacking operation known as “FaceStealer,” which authorities linked to more than $400 million in cryptocurrency thefts over the past 18 months.
EXPERT WARNS OF ‘AI HACKING BLOODBATH’ FOLLOWING MASSIVE BINANCE CRYPTOCURRENCY THEFT
Using deceptive video calls, secretly recorded webcam footage and artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes, the operation tricked victims into installing malicious software, according to the Justice Department.
The FBI said hackers impersonated trusted contacts during video meetings before presenting victims with fake technical problems that required clicking a malicious link.
Federal investigators also seized more than 900 webcam videos of victims as part of the operation.
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The FBI warned that the scheme increasingly targets not only cryptocurrency investors and industry professionals but also developers who maintain open-source software, potentially exposing broader technology systems to cyberattacks.
