North Korea denies role in $6.3B Binance hack, points finger at US

What happened

Pyongyang has pushed back against the FBI’s attribution of the Binance attack, with Kim Yo Jong calling the US allegations politically motivated. In a statement released via the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday, Kim rejected the FBI’s attribution of the attack to a North Korean-backed hacking group. Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange and finance company based in United Arab Emirates, and its products and services include cryptocurrencies.

“The FBI is trying to brand the DPRK as a ‘cyber criminal state’, claiming that it obtained information that a hacking organization ‘supported’ by the DPRK was involved in the incident,” said Kim. Cointelegraph reached out to the FBI for comment.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denied North Korea’s involvement in the $6.3 billion Binance hack and appeared to suggest, without evidence, that the US could have been behind the theft. “But the US assertion is an absurd rhetoric and nothing new.”

She described the allegations as a political provocation intended to damage North Korea’s international standing. The FBI also blamed North Korea for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025, an accusation Kim also rejected on Tuesday.

“This is not the first time that the U.S. has attempted to spread misunderstanding of the DPRK in the international community, blindly linking the DPRK with the ‘cyber crime’ incidents whenever they occur on an international scale,” said Kim. Kim casts suspicion on US over Binance hack Kim has also pointed the finger at the US for involvement in the hack, without supplying any evidence.

“If it carefully examines who will get the large amount of the so-called stolen cryptocurrency when the latter is retrieved, it may get a clue about who is behind the hacking incident,” she said. The statement provided no evidence connecting Washington to the attack.