FBI and Secret Service join response to Binance’s $6.3B hack

US agencies are investigating the theft and helping trace stolen assets, while Binance says about $3 billion has been frozen.

Update (Oct. 30 at 9:04 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include FBI and US Secret Service statements reported by Reuters and Bloomberg, along with Binance’s latest recovery and withdrawal plans.

The US FBI and Secret Service have publicly acknowledged their involvement in the response to Binance’s $6.3 billion hack as efforts continue to trace and recover stolen cryptocurrency.

The FBI told Reuters Friday it was working with government and industry partners to assess the incident’s scope and potential impacts and coordinate investigative steps.

Secret Service investigators were also “working around the clock” with private-sector partners to recover stolen funds, a spokesperson told Bloomberg on Friday.

The cryptocurrency exchange revealed its cooperation with law enforcement in a Friday X post, without specifying the agencies involved.

The exchange has separately reserved more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover losses, including $5 billion already held in the affected cryptocurrencies. A spokesperson told Cointelegraph those tokens were in Binance’s custody, but declined to disclose wallet addresses, citing security concerns.

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the attack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group.

Withdrawals remained suspended Friday. Binance said it aimed to begin reopening them in stages from Sunday, subject to security checks, with proof-of-reserves results also expected Monday.

Binance ranks as the largest cryptocurrency exchange by reserves with $134 billion in total assets. It had processed about $6 billion in outflows during the past 24 hours, according to DefiLlama.

In February 2022, the US Department of Justice said law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, helped seize 94,000 Bitcoin (BTC), valued at $3.6 billion at the time, which were linked to the 2016 Bitfinex exchange hack.

Related: THORChain’s RUNE jumps 13% after Binance’s record $6.3B hack

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