North Korea Denies Binance Heist, Calls US Claims “Absurd Fabrication”
North Korea said claims it was behind the $6.3 billion Binance heist are “nothing more than absurd fabrication,” KCNA said. The FBI blamed its TraderTraitor group on Oct. 31.
Choose Clash Report as a preferred source and see our reporting first in Top Stories.
North Korea has rejected US claims that it stole about $6.3 billion from Binance. Claims linking it to the heist are “nothing more than absurd fabrication,” KCNA said on Nov. 3, Reuters reported.
The Reuters flash did not name a spokesperson or ministry. KCNA also said Pyongyang opposes all malicious cyber activity, BeInCrypto reported.
What North Korea Said
The denial came about two days after the FBI named North Korea as responsible. It is the first public response we found from Pyongyang to the attribution.
It follows a pattern. A foreign ministry spokesperson called US cyber-threat claims a “fabrication” in May, Reuters reported. Another spokesperson dismissed a joint Western warning as “false information” in August, Yonhap reported.
Neither the White House nor Binance had publicly responded to the KCNA statement, BeInCrypto said. Read our earlier FBI report.
What Happened at Binance
Funds began leaving Binance hot wallets around 4:20 p.m. ET on Oct. 29, Chainalysis said. Unauthorized transfers totaled about $6.4 billion, the firm said, the largest theft in crypto history.
TRM Labs put the loss at $6.36 billion across 10 blockchains. Most of it moved in about 20 minutes, CNBC reported.
Binance’s early finding points to a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which let an attacker submit unauthorized withdrawals. It found no evidence of a private key leak, it said.
About $3 billion was frozen on-chain, Binance said. It has resumed withdrawals and says it has replenished about 90% of the stolen assets, CNBC reported.
Who Blamed North Korea
TRM Labs attributed the attack with high confidence to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-linked group. Chainalysis reached the same view after seeing stolen funds mix with money from last month’s Bitget theft. We covered the TRM findings.
On Oct. 31, the FBI said North Korea was responsible for the theft, AFP reported. It said TraderTraitor actors were converting assets into Ethereum and urged firms to block related addresses.
The FBI previously blamed the same group for the $1.5 billion Bybit theft in February 2025. The bureau did not publish its evidence in the statement we reviewed.
Trump’s Cautious Response
President Donald Trump spoke at Mar-a-Lago after the FBI statement. He said: “We don’t know if it’s North Korea, but if it is, we’ll talk to North Korea about it.” Yonhap reported.
US officials have long said stolen crypto helps fund North Korea’s weapons programs. Pyongyang has denied such accusations before.
Choose Clash Report as a preferred source and see our reporting first in Top Stories.