North Korea Denies FBI Finding It Stole $6 Billion From Binance

North Korea on Monday rejected the FBI's finding that its hackers stole more than $6 billion in crypto from Binance, calling it "a grave political provocation." The statement came from Kim Yo Jong, a senior Workers' Party official and the sister of leader Kim Jong Un.

State news agency KCNA carried it early Tuesday, Pyongyang time. South Korea's Yonhap reported the same remarks. They answer the FBI alert of Oct. 31, which said North Korea was behind the Oct. 29 theft. Black Mint reported that alert the same day.

Kim pointed to Bybit and the U.S. bitcoin reserve

Kim said the U.S. claim was "absurd rhetoric and nothing new." She cited last year's Bybit theft, which the FBI also tied to North Korea, as another case of Washington blaming Pyongyang. She said her government opposes "malicious acts in cyberspace."

She also told readers to look at who would end up holding the coins if they are recovered, citing the U.S. plan to keep seized crypto in a strategic reserve. The statement named no one and gave no details to back that point. It closed by saying North Korea has "issues to reconsider" in its stance toward the U.S.

How investigators name a hacker

Blockchains are public. Every transfer of the stolen coins can be followed from address to address. Tracing firms and the FBI compare the route, the tools and the timing with earlier thefts tied to known groups. The FBI calls this one TraderTraitor, the same name it gave the team behind the $1.5 billion Bybit theft in February 2025.

The bureau, working with the Secret Service and IRS Criminal Investigation, published 628 addresses linked to the Binance funds. It asked exchanges, node operators and DeFi services to block any transaction tied to them. A denial from Pyongyang doesn't change that list.

No new statement from the FBI on Kim's remarks appeared on its cyber alerts page when Black Mint checked Monday evening. The Oct. 31 alert was still posted there.

In our opinion: the U.S. case rests on public on-chain tracing, and Kim's statement offers no data of its own to test against it. The stake now is practical: the more services that honor the 628-address block list, the harder it gets to cash out $6 billion. Watch the FBI's list for updates, since any change would show where the coins moved after Monday.