World’s Biggest Crypto Heist: FBI Names North Korea As Binance Hack Suspect

Binance said it had sufficient reserves to cover 90% of the missing assets.

North Korean hackers were behind the theft of $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, the FBI has said.

In a statement on Saturday, the FBI linked Thursday's attack to an entity known as TraderTraitor, which it described as responsible for "malicious cyber activity". The same group was also behind last year's $1.5 billion hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, the bureau said.

The FBI urged cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain analytics firms and other organisations to block transactions associated with several identified addresses to prevent the stolen funds from being laundered.

Its investigation found that TraderTraitor was converting the stolen assets primarily into ethereum. The bureau expects the hackers to attempt further conversions through decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms and "instant swap services".

Ari Redbord, a cryptocurrency expert and chief policy officer at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, said the hackers were likely to divide the stolen funds into smaller amounts and move them through smaller exchanges to avoid detection. The process could continue for months, he said.

"It's bank robbery, in this case, at the speed of the Internet," Redbord said. "However, we can also…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy