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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accused North Korea on Saturday of being behind the theft of $6.3 billion in cryptocurrencies by hacking the "Binance" platform.
The FBI stated that "the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is responsible for the theft of more than 6 billion US dollars in virtual assets from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange platform, as of October 29."
US investigators confirm that they have identified the entity responsible for this massive theft, a group of North Korean hackers known as "TraderTraitor," and they have also found that the thieves were working to convert the stolen funds into the "Ether" cryptocurrency of the "Ethereum" network.
The statement read: "These assets are expected to subsequently undergo further laundering operations by being transferred through Decentralized Finance (DeFi) services and instant exchange platforms, in preparation for further stages of money laundering."
Decentralized finance refers to financial services that operate on a "blockchain" database. As for instant exchange platforms, they allow for the rapid conversion of one cryptocurrency to another, without the need for a bank or a traditional intermediary.
The FBI published a list containing about 500 addresses on the "Ethereum" network used by members of "TraderTraitor" to launder stolen assets, and requested that cryptocurrency platforms, decentralized finance services, and blockchain analysis firms block transactions associated with these addresses.
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