The FBI has officially named North Korea as the culprit behind the Binance hack. The exchange was robbed last Thursday, and the bureau's statement was released on Saturday, October 31. About $6.3 billion in digital assets were withdrawn.
The attack was attributed to the TraderTraitor campaign. Under this name, American investigators track North Korean attacks on crypto infrastructure. This is not a single specific program, but an entire series of hacks carried out by hackers linked to the DPRK.
For a trader, this is a question not of the chart, but of access to money. Binance has already stated that it has covered most of the hole from its own reserves and aims to resume withdrawals on Sunday.
How large is the sum?
$6.3 billion is the largest theft in the history of the crypto market. For comparison, the DPRK spends almost the same amount on defense for an entire year.
- up to $6 billion per year - North Korea's military spending according to MilitarySpend
- $6.75 billion - all thefts attributed to the DPRK from 2016 to the beginning of 2026 across 263 incidents according to CertiK
- over $2 billion - the share of North Korean groups in crypto market losses for 2025
A single attack has almost matched the previous ten years combined. In 2025, the entire market lost $3.4 billion, and the DPRK accounted for 79 incidents out of 656.
Where did the money go?
The stolen funds have already mostly been converted to ETH - this is the most recent activity visible on the blockchain.
Next, the FBI expects the standard money-laundering scheme:
- Splitting. The large sum is broken up into many small transfers.
- Decentralized services. The funds are run through chains of addresses without document verification.
- Instant exchangers. Assets are swapped for other coins without identifying the owner.
Whom is the FBI asking for help?
The bureau has appealed to the private sector. There is one request - to block transactions from TraderTraitor addresses. The full list of addresses has been published in the FBI's release.
Who the appeal is addressed to:
- operators of THORChain nodes and RPC nodes
- instant exchangers
- decentralized services
- blockchain analysts
What does this mean for a trader?
Binance says the hole has already been covered. According to the exchange's statement, 90% of the stolen assets have been replenished from its own reserves, and withdrawals are planned to be restored on Sunday.
The main point: the money in a trading platform account depends not only on your strategy. That is why the terms of custody and execution are worth reading in advance - for example, in the academy or by comparing programs in the prop firm catalog.
Were you holding crypto on an exchange that Thursday?
The first thought on days like this is not about the chart. It is about where your money is held. This is exactly the part that people read carelessly in crypto prop programs: which exchange execution goes through, which coins are available, what counts as a violation during a sharp dump. The range is huge: some offer only BTC and ETH, others a hundred altcoins and leverage up to 1:5. It is more convenient to compare this before paying for a challenge, while the choice is still yours.