The FBI on Saturday formally attributed the theft of more than $6 billion from Binance to North Korea's TraderTraitor group, publishing 628 addresses linked to the laundering and asking exchanges and DeFi services to block transactions with them, BleepingComputer reports. According to the FBI, the stolen funds are being converted mainly into ether. Binance reopened withdrawals in phases on Sunday, starting with bitcoin, ether, USDT, USDC, BNB and XRP. It says it has replaced about 95% of the stolen assets with its own funds and that about $3 billion remains frozen.

What it means: The FBI's formal attribution does not change the picture analytics firms had already given, but it has legal consequences. Once US authorities publish a list of addresses belonging to a sanctioned state actor, any provider that handles transactions with them takes on serious sanctions risk. That also applies to European providers under MiCA, which must screen incoming transfers under the travel rule and against sanctions lists. Binance's quick replacement of the funds shows that a very large exchange can absorb even a loss of this size, but the heavy outflows after withdrawals reopened show that user trust has been shaken. For Greek users and businesses holding crypto-assets on exchanges, the episode is a reminder that third-party custody always means counterparty risk. Spreading holdings across providers, checking whether a provider holds a MiCA licence and using a self-custody wallet for amounts that are not needed for day-to-day liquidity all reduce that risk.

Read the original on BleepingComputer

Related service: Consulting

Related stories