Asset outflows from Binance have officially normalized. Meanwhile, North Korea strongly dismissed US allegations linking it to the record $6.3 billion Binance cryptocurrency heist. Customers withdrew a net $4.72 billion by Monday. The platform initially saw a massive spike in withdrawals during the first 24 hours. Previously, the company froze withdrawals for over two days. Furthermore, Binance resumed services for certain assets on Sunday morning. They opened even more assets today, Tuesday. Co-CEO Richard Teng confirmed the platform remains in very strong financial health. In fact, the company has successfully replenished 95% of the affected tokens.
Hourly deposits are now comfortably exceeding withdrawals. Net outflows since the service resumption represent a modest 3% of total assets. To stem further losses, Binance launched a community appreciation campaign. This initiative runs till November 21. It offers fee rebates and lucrative rewards for users who hit $10,000 in cumulative trading volumes. Additionally, the exchange promises up to 10% annual percentage rates on specific yield products. Lombard decentralized finance head Maksym Repa noted that this contained market reaction demonstrates investor maturity. Therefore, users are clearly separating a centralized exchange security failure from core Bitcoin network issues.
North Korea Denies US Allegations of Involvement in Binance Crypto Hack
The FBI recently accused a North Korean state-linked group named TraderTraitor of executing the massive theft. Unsurprisingly, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong firmly dismissed these claims. She labeled the US allegations as absurd rhetoric and a grave political provocation. Furthermore, she accused the FBI of trying to brand the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a cyber-criminal state. She believes Washington aims to intentionally mislead international public opinion.
North Korea has completely ignored recent summit diplomacy overtures from US President Donald Trump. Moreover, Kim Yo Jong warned that her nation has unspecified issues to reconsider due to blatant US hostility. According to a recent Reuters report, Lim Eul-chul from Kyungnam University highlighted a specific reason behind this unusually swift denial. He stated Pyongyang likely fears additional US measures targeting crypto wallets could eventually choke off its funding.
Big Game Hunting Funds Weapons Programs
Cryptocurrency theft directly fuels North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimates North Korea has successfully stolen a record $7.6 billion in cryptocurrency throughout 2026. Similarly, Chainalysis reports that North Korea accounts for a staggering 89% of all crypto hack losses this year. This represents a massive jump from just 15% back in 2021. The average reported loss per hack also escalated drastically. It rose from $50.65 million in 2021 to an alarming $185.65 million in 2026. Alec Zebrick from Chainalysis described this exact strategy as big game hunting. Hackers target massive exchanges because extreme complexity gets offset by massive financial payoffs. For context, South Korea’s central bank estimated North Korea’s entire 2025 GDP at $35.09 billion. Therefore, this single Binance theft equals roughly one-sixth of the entire North Korean economic output.
Additionally, the losses faced by Binance clearly eclipse others. February 2014 saw Mt. Gox incrementally hacked. In December 2020, nine hacks were recorded, including the $3.5 billion LuBian Bitcoin theft. Later, in February 2025, 10 separate hacks surfaced. Finally, October 2026 witnessed 35 hacks. The losses exceed $6 billion, notably including the catastrophic Binance loss across multiple blockchains.
