U.S. Authorities Team Up in Binance's $6.3 Billion Hack Probe; Move to Freeze, Trace Stolen Funds

FBI and USSS Launch Investigation
North Korean Elite Hacking Group Likely Behind Attack
CFTC: "Regulatory Gaps at Offshore Exchanges"

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) have launched a joint investigation into the hack of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, in which $6.3 billion (about KRW 8.4 trillion) was stolen. U.S. authorities have also joined forces with private companies to freeze, trace and recover the stolen funds.

According to foreign media reports and other sources on October 31, Binance is cooperating with investigative agencies around the world, including the FBI and USSS, to resolve the largest hack in its history.

The FBI said in an official statement that it is aware of the incident and is working with public- and private-sector partners to determine the scope of the hackers' activities, assess the potential impact and coordinate necessary investigative measures.

The USSS also said investigators are working with private-sector partners, including cryptocurrency companies, to identify, freeze, trace and recover funds stolen from Binance.

The U.S. investigation began as blockchain analytics firms identified a North Korea-linked group as being behind the hack.

After analyzing the methods and patterns used in the attack, TRM Labs and other firms concluded that North Korea's elite hacking group TraderTraitor was likely involved. The FBI previously identified the group as being behind the theft of about $1.5 billion from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit last year.

In response to the incident, U.S. financial regulators also raised concerns about security at offshore cryptocurrency exchanges that are not subject to regulation.

Michael Selig, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said in an interview with CNBC, "The real problem is that these are unregulated offshore exchanges," adding that they do not have safeguards comparable to those in U.S. financial markets.

He said the CFTC's announcement on October 26 that it would pursue voluntary federal registration for cryptocurrency exchanges was also intended to address this issue.

Chairman Selig said cryptocurrency can move faster than traditional assets and can be used to conceal the source or whereabouts of funds, but stressed that authorities have the ability to trace funds using blockchain technology.

Binance said that about $6.3 billion worth of digital assets were withdrawn without authorization in an attack that exploited an engineer's hacked laptop and a vulnerability in its transaction approval system. It is the largest single hack in the history of the digital asset industry.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.