WORLDTECHFeds announce seizure of $1.2 billion from Binance theft; also takedown of ‘FaceStealer’ tools
AI illustrationWhat happened
The Department of Justice and FBI announced two separate actions in response to North Korea-linked cryptocurrency theft operations. The Justice Department obtained court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion that was stolen from Binance during the brazen attack — part of the $2.7 billion total that was frozen by several cryptocurrency platforms following the theft. Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange and finance company based in United Arab Emirates, and its products and services include cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain intelligence company Elliptic said this week that it saw North Korea's launderers “creating their own worthless tokens and using them to move stolen cryptoassets through decentralized exchange liquidity pools, so that no funds pass directly from the wallets holding stolen assets to the wallets that receive them.” law enforcement this week following last month’s $6.3 billion theft from cryptocurrency platform Binance.
Tysen Duva said multiple divisions within the Justice Department “played the critical role in immediately freezing billions of dollars’ worth of stolen Binance digital assets before they got beyond law enforcement reach.” “As the Department’s liaison to the digital asset industry, the Criminal Division quickly and efficiently used its expertise to immediately halt about half of this historic breach,” Duva said.
Binance and the FBI attributed the theft to TraderTraitor — the premiere North Korean hacking group responsible for stealing billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency in multiple attacks over the last decade. “Efforts to trace, freeze, seize, and forfeit the stolen virtual assets are ongoing, as TraderTraitor actors continue to launder such assets through various cryptocurrency bridges, mixers, and exchanges,” the Justice Department said.
Multiple blockchain security firms said North Korea and other actors are using novel, automated methods to launder the stolen cryptocurrency.