FBI Links North Korea's TraderTraitor to Record $6.43 Billion Binance Crypto Heist
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially attributed the theft of more than $6 billion in virtual assets to TraderTraitor, a North Korea-aligned elite hacking group also tracked as Jade Sleet, Pressure Chollima, PUKCHONG, Slow Pisces, and UNC4899. The FBI, along with the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), said it
The FBI has linked the North Korean hacker group, known as TraderTraitor, to a staggering $6.43 billion crypto heist. This group, also known as Jade Sleet, Pressure Chollima, PUKCHONG, Slow Pisces, and UNC4899, has been active since 2020 and specializes in targeting crypto assets. The theft, the largest in history, surpassed the $1.46 billion heist from Bybit in February 2025.
The stolen assets, primarily in Ethereum and Bitcoin, were converted into various cryptocurrencies and are now being laundered using DeFi and instant swap services. The FBI, along with the U.S. Secret Service and IRS-CI, observed the group converting stolen assets into Ethereum and further laundering them through DeFi platforms.
Binance has resumed withdrawals after pausing them due to the incident, while deposit services remain unaffected. This heist nearly doubles the total crypto assets stolen by the regime, according to Elliptic. North Korean threat actors are known for their sophisticated tradecraft, often using trojanized Terraform providers as malware distribution vectors and impersonating recruiters to trick victims into downloading malicious code.
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