North Korea is behind a hacker attack on the Binance crypto exchange that resulted in the theft of more than $6bn, the FBI said. The exchange promised to cover the financial losses and announced a phased resumption of withdrawals on November 1. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
According to the US agency, the theft occurred around October 29, 2026. The FBI links the attack to North Korean cyber activity it tracks under the name TraderTraitor.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is responsible for the theft of virtual assets worth more than $6 billion from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, which occurred around October 29, 2026," the FBI statement said.
Together with the Secret Service and the criminal investigation unit of the US Internal Revenue Service, the bureau established that the attackers are converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum.
Going forward, according to the agency's assessment, the hackers may use decentralized financial services and instant exchange platforms to launder the funds. The FBI published crypto addresses linked to the attack and urged market participants to block transactions with them.
In a statement dated October 31, Binance said it had replenished about 90% of the affected assets. To cover the losses, the company allocated more than $6.34bn. The exchange intends to purchase the remaining tokens on the market and through over-the-counter deals.
"Binance will bear the financial losses from this theft of assets, not the users," the company stressed.
Binance scheduled the first stage of restoring withdrawals for November 1 from 11:00 to 14:00 Kazakhstan time. Access to operations will be opened gradually.
According to the company's statement, after the attack, teams conducted additional security checks of the platform and affected services. Deposits remain available.
"User funds remain safe. The financial consequences of the theft of funds will be borne by Binance, not our users," the exchange said.