FBI seizes $1.2bn stolen in Binance cryptocurrency hack - This is the Coast

The FBI has seized more than $1.2bn (£910m) of cryptocurrency stolen from Binance last month. Assets worth more than $6.3bn (£4.7bn) were stolen from the cryptocurrency platform, in what has been described as one of the "largest bank heists in human history".

US authorities have said a North Korean hacking unit called TraderTraitor was responsible for the theft, which was reportedly completed in less than 20 minutes. It is believed to be the largest cryptocurrency hack to date - surpassing the $1.5bn (£1.13bn) stolen from Bybit last year.

Government Recovery

The US government and private sector have collectively frozen more than $2.7bn (£2bn) of the stolen funds. The Department of Justice announced on Thursday that it had obtained court authorization to seize or restrain in excess of $1.2bn of that total.

In such cases, the US government typically files a claim of forfeiture with a judge, who then determines who has a legitimate claim to the recovered funds.

Binance Response

Binance announced on Thursday that it had "completed coverage of assets impacted in the security incident" and thanked users for their "patience and understanding". The company said it had published a "Proof of Reserves snapshot" and that "once the zero-knowledge proof is generated, users can independently verify that their assets are backed at a minimum of 1:1".

90% of stolen assets have been replenished. We will absorb the financial impact of the stolen funds, and not pass these on to our users.

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said the company's initial investigation suggested the incident "may have started with a compromised DevOps engineer's laptop". He clarified: "To be clear: the attacker did not simply use one engineer's permissions, and this was not a single 'one-click' action. It involved a more complex attack process."

Binance claims to have 335 million users worldwide, all covered by the Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), established in 2018 to protect user assets in "extreme cases", including security breaches.

North Korean Involvement

The FBI has also blamed North Korea for a separate scheme called FaceStealer, which resulted in the theft of more than $400m (£302m) worth of cryptocurrency over the last 18 months. The "highly effective" scheme involved hijacking popular messaging apps and using deepfake videos.

The US has repeatedly accused North Korea of using cyber schemes to generate funds for its regime, including its weapons program. Officials insisted the US "will continue the fight" against those who "financially gain from cybercrime".