North Korea denies responsibility for record $6.3bn Binance hack
North Korea has rejected allegations that it orchestrated the record $6.3 billion (£4.7 billion) hack of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the largest heist in digital asset history. On Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong, the director of North Korea’s General Affairs Department and sister of leader Kim Jong Un, dismissed the accusations as absurd rhetoric and a sinister provocation by the United States to damage the country's reputation, asserting that Pyongyang firmly opposes malicious cyber acts.
US authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Secret Service, joined blockchain analysts in blaming the assault on state-backed group TraderTraitor, also known as the Lazarus Group. The unit was previously accused of a $1.5 billion attack on crypto exchange Bybit in 2025. Research organizations such as the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies state that North Korea recruits university students into intelligence-run hacking teams to help finance its economy.
Binance determined that the breach stemmed from a compromised engineer's laptop, facilitating unauthorized withdrawals. Customers withdrew over $3.6 billion after trading resumed, but the platform managed to freeze targeted tokens and has covered around 95% of the stolen assets under its pledge to absorb all losses.
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