Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, addressed the historic cyber heist that drained roughly $6.3 billion in digital assets from the exchange on October 29, stating plainly that absolute digital defense does not exist. The platform resumed customer withdrawals over the weekend after deploying corporate treasury reserves, insurance funds, and its Secure Asset Fund for Users to replace approximately 95% of the stolen assets, according to company statements.
FBI Links North Korea to Heist
Federal investigators verified that the cyberattack was carried out by TraderTraitor—an advanced North Korea-associated hacking collective that goes by several designations including Jade Sleet, Pressure Chollima, PUKCHONG, Slow Pisces, and UNC4899, as The Hacker News reported on Saturday.
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The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, alongside the U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, identified the cyber unit as the force behind the record-setting theft. Michael Bosack, founding director of the Parley Policy Institute and a former UN Command official, told the AFP news agency that the haul equaled nearly a quarter of North Korea’s estimated annual GDP.
The FBI stated the hackers used a compromised laptop and malicious software designed to delete evidence, and the law enforcement agency added that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was responsible for the theft on or about October 29.
The Binance hack exposed more than a security failure. It raised questions about who controls billions in digital assets, who can freeze them, and who is accountable when things go wrong.https://t.co/zwPRY1DKWV
Ari Redbord, the global head of policy at TRM Labs, a crypto research firm that assisted Binance in tracing and recovering funds, described the attack in an interview with NPR as the largest bank robbery in human history.
Imagine a world where someone could walk into a bank and walk out with $6.36 billion in stolen funds and then move those funds at the speed of the internet
Ari Redbord, Global head of policy at TRM Labs
Redbord added that the cyber capability belongs to a professional military apparatus. North Korea has built the most sophisticated cyber capabilities in the world. They have a cadre of teams of professional hackers who are part of their military,
he said, noting that the proceeds are going to be used for weapons proliferation and other destabilizing activity,
NPR reported.
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A 2024 United Nations report previously stated that proceeds from North Korean cyberattacks had helped fund weapons of mass destruction development. Anton Golub, an executive at crypto infrastructure firm Forte, told Coindesk that when Binance gets hacked, the industry freezes nearly $3 billion within hours. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said the hack proved the point about agency-proposed market rules. Bitwise Asset Management chief investment officer Matt Hougan noted that hot wallet hacks historically have not had a meaningful impact on future crypto returns.
Pyongyang Rejects U.S. Allegations
Pyongyang state media rejected the attribution from Washington, labeling the accusations a grave political provocation. Blockchain analytics firms including Elliptic and Chainalysis countered the denial by tracing billions in stolen cryptocurrency through thousands of wallets across multiple blockchains.
User funds are SAFU. pic.twitter.com/IdPNTMGudM
According to Elliptic’s on-chain analysis, the attackers utilized roughly 12,000 wallets across 11 blockchains and executed more than 40,000 transactions in the first four days following the attack, CNBC reported. Stablecoin issuers including Tether and Circle, alongside other digital asset networks, managed to freeze approximately $2.85 billion of the stolen assets on-chain before they could be fully laundered.
The hack also coincided with strategic cruise missile test-firings by North Korea, with Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Jang Do-young stating that South Korea and the United States were closely coordinating an analysis of the test.
Binance Restores Withdrawals
Following the phased restoration of withdrawal services starting November 1, Binance recorded more than $3.6 billion in global net outflows, according to data from DefiLlama cited by Business Insider Africa. The exchange noted that withdrawal volumes subsequently stabilized toward normal levels, representing a small fraction of the roughly $162.8 billion in custody assets held at the close of 2025.
Across more than 30 African territories, Binance maintains fiat gateways and peer-to-peer exchange operations, providing access for the Tanzanian shilling, South African rand, Kenyan shilling, West African CFA franc, Ugandan shilling, Ghanaian cedi, and Central African CFA franc. Sub-Saharan Africa’s crypto economy reached $101 billion between July 2025 and June 2026, with South Africa growing by 52% to $39.3 billion and Nigeria recording $38.1 billion in activity.
Withdrawal data update By 03:00 UTC, we are seeing hourly deposits exceed withdrawals, reflecting improving user activity and stabilizing flows. pic.twitter.com/UiXmYC2lm3
Binance co-chief executive Richard Teng confirmed that the platform set aside corporate funds to absorb the financial blow so that customers remained unharmed. Our commitment remains the same: Binance will fully cover the financial impact of the funds stolen in this incident,
the company stated on X, as reported by The Guardian. Binance co-CEO Yi He stated that user funds were SAFU and that the stolen amount constituted a negligible portion of company assets and reserves.
Changpeng Zhao, speaking to Yahoo Finance after systems returned to standard operations, acknowledged the underlying vulnerability of large-scale digital platforms. There’s no 100% security,
Zhao said. So when you run a platform, especially a crypto platform the possibility is always there. I did not think it was going to be this big of magnitude, probably not.
Security Reminder: Stay Alert to Scams as Withdrawals Resume Withdrawals are resuming in phases and opportunistic scammers may try to take advantage of this period. They may impersonate Binance through DMs, emails, group chats and even small transfers with a message attached,…
Earlier coverage: Binance confirms massive security breach impacting digital assets
North Korea denies the Binance hack. Several crypto forensic firms have linked the Binance hack to North Korean state-backed attackers https://t.co/BXaZPLT9mA
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