The theft of billions of dollars from Binance within a matter of minutes, the biggest crypto heist in history, was orchestrated by North Korean hackers, the FBI said Saturday.
The bureau said in a statement that this week's attack was tied to "malicious cyber activity" by an entity known as TraderTraitor, the same actors behind a $1.5bn Bybit hack last year.
The FBI asked crypto exchanges, blockchain analytics companies and others to block transactions linked to various addresses to make sure the money is not laundered to cover up its origins.
It also said its probe found that TraderTraitor was converting stolen assets primarily into a cryptocurrency called ethereum . The FBI expects that TraderTraitor will now attempt to convert the assets using DeFi and "instant swap services."
On Thursday, $6.3bn in bitcoin and other digital currency was stolen from Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, in what several crypto experts said bore the hallmarks of a North Korean hack.
The company said Saturday that it had enough set aside in the same digital currency that was stolen to cover 90% of the missing assets and promised that customers would be fully reimbursed.
Binance promised it would cover all losses from company funds and allow clients to trade again within days.
Cryptocurrency prices fell on news of the hack, which analysts said could be the largest financial heist of all time. The publicly traded stocks of crypto-related firms Coinbase , Strategy, and Robinhood slid.
Binance has a $1bn bitcoin reserve fund designed to protect customer assets in the event of security breaches, according to its website. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said on X that the company owned SpaceX shares worth more than $1bn.
Binance's other co-CEO, Richard Teng, said in a post on X that the breach was a "complex attack" that was not carried out by one person and included a compromised laptop as well as malicious software designed to delete evidence of its activity as it went along, "making it more difficult for us to trace and investigate."
The hackers were able to manipulate a system used to approve transactions to move money out of a Binance-controlled, internet-connected so-called "hot" wallet in a way that did not pass through normal approval controls, Teng said.
"Rest assured that we are working nonstop to resolve this, to make the users whole, and live up to your trust," Teng wrote.
Bitcoin hit a six-week low of $76,368, and ether fell more than 3% to a two-month low of $2,178 before markets stabilized. Bitcoin last stood at $76,447 and ether at $2,226. Binance's BNB token was down about 6.4% over the past 24 hours at $696.
The incident adds to a string of crypto thefts. Last year, attackers stole $2.9 billion worth of cryptocurrency across nearly 150 attacks, according to researchers at TRM Labs.
"This incident is almost certainly the single-largest-known theft of any kind," British blockchain analysts Elliptic said.
