North Korea Rejects Blame for Binance Hack and Hints at US Involvement

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of leader Kim Jong Un, said on Tuesday that Pyongyang had nothing to do with the $6.3 billion Binance theft. In a statement carried by state media, she dismissed the FBI’s claim that a hacking group backed by North Korea was responsible, calling it absurd and nothing new. She described the accusation as a political provocation meant to hurt the country’s image, and she also rejected the FBI’s earlier blame for the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025.

Kim Yo Jong Points to the United States

Kim went further and suggested the US might be behind the attack, saying that whoever ends up receiving the large amount of stolen crypto once it is recovered could offer a clue about the culprit. Her statement offered no proof for the claim, and the FBI has been asked for comment.

Evidence Linking Binance Hack to North Korea

Last week, TRM Labs attributed the breach to the TraderTraitor group with high confidence, using both onchain and offchain intelligence. Chainalysis and ZachXBT also tied it to North Korean hackers. TRM noted similarities with earlier attacks, such as long preparation, Tornado Cash funding for attacker wallets and the coordinated use of signatures obtained in advance, though the laundering pattern differed from the Bybit case.

Bitget Hack Connection

ZachXBT found that stolen money from the Binance and Bitget hacks was mixed at one address after passing through THORChain. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen had earlier said preliminary findings linked IP addresses to VPN services used by a certain North Korean group.