Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has rejected the FBI’s claim that a North Korean-backed hacking group was responsible for the $6.3 billion Binance attack. In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday, she called the US attribution politically motivated and said it was intended to harm North Korea’s international standing.
Kim also dismissed the FBI’s earlier attribution of the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in February 2025 to North Korea. She said the United States had repeatedly linked the country to major cybercrime incidents, an accusation she described as baseless.
She suggested that investigators consider who might benefit if the stolen cryptocurrency is recovered, implying that the US could be behind the Binance attack. Her statement offered no evidence connecting Washington to the theft. The FBI had been contacted for comment.
The denial follows assessments from several investigators pointing to North Korean hackers. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs attributed the Binance attack to North Korea’s TraderTraitor group with high confidence, citing onchain and offchain information. Chainalysis and blockchain investigator ZachXBT also linked the theft to North Korean actors.
TRM Labs cited similarities with earlier attacks, including advance preparation, the use of Tornado Cash to fund attacker wallets and coordinated use of transaction signatures obtained in advance. The firm said, however, that the laundering activity differed from the pattern seen after the Bybit hack.
ZachXBT also reported a connection between the Binance and Bitget hacks, saying funds stolen in both incidents were mixed at the same address after moving through THORChain. Bitget CEO Gracy Chen previously said preliminary findings linked IP addresses to VPN services used by what she described as a North Korean group.
Sources: Cointelegraph.