The US Department of Justice has received court approval to seize or seize more than $1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency stolen in the October hack of the Binance exchange. In total, American authorities, together with private companies, managed to freeze over $2.7 billion in stolen assets.
Image source: Binance
The court resolution applies to some of the funds already blocked. The US Department of Justice did not specify how much was actually seized and how much remains under arrest. Work to find and return the remaining stolen crypto assets continues.
The attack on Binance occurred on October 29 this year. Hackers withdrew digital assets worth about $6.34 billion from exchange wallets. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) blamed the hack on the TraderTraitor group, which US authorities associate with the military structures of North Korea.
According to the Ministry of Justice, attackers continue to launder stolen cryptocurrency through network bridges, cryptocurrency mixers and exchanges. The FBI, along with the US Secret Service and tax investigators, issued an alert with wallet addresses associated with the attack. Cryptocurrency platforms are recommended to block transactions with these addresses and operations with funds coming from them.
According to Binance’s investigation, hackers penetrated the exchange’s infrastructure after compromising developers’ computers using a fake interview and malware. This allowed them to gain access to the internal tools and management systems of crypto wallets. By November 12, the exchange had fully restored the security of client assets affected by the attack, using more than $6.34 billion from its own funds and reserve funds to compensate for the damage.
At the same time, the US Department of Justice announced the seizure of cloud infrastructure that North Korean hackers used in another fraudulent campaign called FaceStealer. The attackers organized fake video calls using pre-recorded videos and deepfakes, after which they convinced victims to install malware under the pretext of fixing technical problems. The FBI estimates that more than $400 million in cryptocurrency has been stolen through this scheme over the past 18 months.
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