{"id":672148,"date":"2026-11-01T23:10:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T23:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672148\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T23:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T23:10:51","slug":"binance-says-90-of-losses-from-6-3bn-hack-covered-as-fbi-says-north-korea-behind-attack-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672148\/","title":{"rendered":"Binance says 90% of losses from $6.3bn hack covered as FBI says North Korea behind attack \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cryptocurrency<\/a> exchange Binance<\/a> says it has replaced 90 per cent of the \u2060amount stolen after a record $6.3 billion (\u20ac5.63 billion) hack of its platform by a group the FBI<\/a> identified as being backed by North Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The remaining 10 per cent of tokens are less liquid, meaning they \u2060may take \u200blonger to buy, the company said in a post on X on Saturday. Co-chief executive Richard Teng said separately that the company was \u201ccommitted to covering the \u2060remaining 10 per cent\u201d and that \u201cusers will not bear the financial impact of this incident\u201d.<\/p>\n

Binance suspended user withdrawals after the hack, but said on Sunday that some had resumed and would be rolled out in phases to ensure stability.<\/p>\n

The announcement came as the FBI on Saturday confirmed earlier suspicions from private investigators and analysts that a North Korea-affiliated group called TraderTraitor was behind the hack.<\/p>\n

TraderTraitor is believed to be part of the Lazarus Group, which gained notoriety in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for The Interview, a film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing information advising the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (North Korea) was responsible for the theft of more than $6 billion USD in virtual assets from cryptocurrency exchange Binance, on or about October 29, 2026,\u201d the law enforcement agency said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The FBI added that it had observed \u201cTraderTraitor actors\u201d converting stolen assets into ethereum, and expected those assets to be laundered further by converting them using decentralised finance and instant swap services.<\/p>\n

It said it was urging private sector entities \u201cto block transactions with or derived from addresses TraderTraitor actors are using to launder these stolen assets\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Central Bank fines Irish-based unit of crypto giant Coinbase \u20ac3.3mOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Teng said on Friday that the breach was a \u201ccomplex attack\u201d involving a compromised laptop and malicious software designed to delete evidence of its activity, making it \u200charder to trace and investigate.<\/p>\n

Binance said it had set aside around $6.34 billion of company funds to cover the losses.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0New Government investment accounts could generate up to \u20ac400m in fees for banksOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cOur commitment remains the same: Binance will fully cover the financial impact of the funds stolen in this incident,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n

The money spent rebuying tokens came from using part of its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users, a bitcoin reserve it holds to protect customers in the event of security breaches, as well as some \u2060of its Futures Insurance Fund and the company\u2019s own corporate treasury, it said \u200bon X.<\/p>\n

The attack on Binance came as many observers express worries that the ever-expanding capabilities of artificial intelligence models could compromise cryptography and IT security protocols.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin plunged nearly 5 per cent after the news of the hack, while ethereum dropped nearly 6 per cent and BNB, native to Binance, tumbled nearly 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

The sheer scale of the hack has put a spotlight on the capacity of North Korea \u2013 which faces extensive international sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes \u2013 to find illicit means to capture revenue. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency exchange Binance says it has replaced 90 per cent of the \u2060amount stolen after a record $6.3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[218,35906,3059,72,30750,22380,285,61,60,103246,18802],"class_list":["post-672148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-binance","tag-bitcoin","tag-business","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-ethereum","tag-fbi","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kim-jong-un","tag-north-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}