Trump says US looking into Binance hack: ‘We don’t know’ if North Korea responsible

President Donald Trump said on 30 October that the US was investigating whether North Korea was behind a theft of about $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance. Asked about a North Korean connection in the Oval Office, he said: “We don’t know. We’re looking at that.” The attack on 29 October drained assets from Binance wallets across several blockchains and appears to be the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.

At the time of Trump’s remarks, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs had attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean hacking group. The FBI subsequently said North Korea was responsible and urged cryptocurrency services to help block the movement of stolen assets. Binance said its initial investigation pointed to a compromised employee laptop, while cautioning that the cause had not been fully verified. The exchange said it had frozen roughly $3 billion in affected assets and would cover losses using company funds and its user protection fund.