US Department of Justice Moves to Seize $1.2B from Binance Hack

The US Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has received court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency connected to a major security breach at Binance. The funds form part of a broader $6.3 billion digital currency theft from the exchange. Law enforcement agencies and private partners have successfully frozen upwards of $2.7 billion in stolen assets since the incident occurred on October 29. Investigators continue their efforts to trace and recover remaining funds.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation previously attributed the cyberattack to the North Korean group TraderTraitor. Meanwhile, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, denied the country's involvement. Binance stated that it covered the compromised assets utilizing its own reserves, pointing to a proof-of-reserves snapshot demonstrating full one-to-one backing for customer holdings.

In a separate enforcement operation, American authorities dismantled cloud infrastructure linked to FaceStealer, a North Korean social engineering campaign. This operation targeted individuals within the crypto and Web3 sectors, as well as open-source developers, accumulating over $400 million in stolen cryptocurrency across eighteen months. The perpetrators employed secretly recorded footage and artificial intelligence deepfakes of well-known figures on video calls, alongside deceptive technical fixes, to trick victims into downloading malware.

Department of Justice Action

Law enforcement officials executed a federal warrant to seize more than 900 webcam recordings of victims affected by the FaceStealer operation. The FBI additionally issued a public advisory offering guidance on preventing such compromises and handling recovery procedures. Public records indicate the hackers behind the campaign operated under several designations, including Sapphire Sleet, UNC1069, Dangerous Password, CryptoCore, APT38, BlueNoroff, and Stardust Chollima. These actions follow an earlier November enforcement effort targeting roughly $15 million in cryptocurrency associated with the APT38 group.

Authorities froze over $2.7 billion in Binance hack proceeds while disrupting a major crypto scam.

Why it matters

These coordinated legal actions highlight ongoing international law enforcement efforts to counter sophisticated cybercriminal networks operating across digital currency platforms. The asset freezes and seizure authorizations demonstrate how public and private entities collaborate to intercept illicit funds and disrupt North Korean state-backed hacking campaigns targeting the global Web3 ecosystem.