After the $6.3 Billion Binance Theft, the Secret Service Is Tracing the Money, a Blockchain Firm Points to North Korea, and an Expert Warns of Worse to Come

The fallout from the Binance theft widened on Friday, with federal investigators and outside analysts weighing in, Fox Business reports. Our earlier story covered Binance's own account of the incident.

The tracing. A Secret Service spokesperson told Fox Business that investigators are "working around the clock" with private-sector partners, including Circle, to "identify, freeze, trace, and recover" the funds taken Thursday. The agency is also working with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and other law enforcement partners to find those responsible.

The attribution. The blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking unit, with "high confidence," based on on-chain and off-chain evidence. It said the attackers moved about $6.36 billion out of Binance wallets across 10 blockchains, most of it in roughly 20 minutes. President Trump, asked about it in the Oval Office, said "We don't know. We're looking at that" when asked whether North Korea was behind it. He added of crypto, "I've always felt it was a little bit dangerous," but "now they say they have it pretty much under control. We'll see."

What Binance says. The exchange confirmed about $6.3 billion in stolen assets and says it has reserved more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the losses, including $5 billion already held in the same cryptocurrencies. About $3 billion has been frozen on-chain with help from industry partners. Binance says its initial finding of a compromised laptop was followed by evidence of more points of intrusion, that its internet-connected wallets were compromised, and that it found no evidence private keys leaked. It promised a detailed technical report. It also pledged to "absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users" and temporarily suspended withdrawals.

The warning. Eric Schiffer, chairman of Patriarch and Reputation Management Consultants, told Fox Business the theft is "one of the world's greatest thefts of all time" and that "the bloodbath of AI hacking is to come." He predicts Binance will recover financially but lose credibility and some customers, and he urged people to ask whether a crypto platform is a "trusted brand" and to consider alternatives to holding coins on exchanges, such as exchange-traded funds.

Note for readers: the North Korea link is TRM Labs' assessment, and Mr. Trump said the administration has not reached a conclusion. Schiffer's forecast is one consultant's opinion.