Trump says US looking into possible North Korean role in $6.3 billion Binance hack
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President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States is examining whether North Korean hackers were behind a massive theft of roughly $6.3 billion from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
“We don’t know. We’re looking at that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if the attack should be attributed to actors from North Korea.
The comments came a day after the breach, which blockchain analysts have described as the largest cryptocurrency theft on record.
.@POTUS on the Binance hack: "We're looking at that... They say they have it pretty much under control. We'll see." https://t.co/nKtLDZES1w
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 30, 2026
The incident unfolded late Thursday when attackers drained funds from Binance wallets across about 10 blockchains, with the bulk of the transfers completed in roughly 20 minutes.
Binance reported that approximately $6.3 billion was affected.
The exchange temporarily suspended withdrawals while investigating and said it was working with partners to trace and freeze stolen assets.
About $3 billion has been located or frozen so far through cooperation with stablecoin issuers and other industry players.
Blockchain intelligence firms have pointed to North Korea.
TRM Labs attributed the attack with “high confidence” to TraderTraitor, describing it as North Korea’s elite hacking unit and noting similarities to previous incidents, including the $1.5 billion Bybit theft in 2025 that the FBI linked to the same group.
Chainalysis also assessed that a North Korea-linked group was involved, citing on-chain evidence such as funds mixing with proceeds from a recent Bitget exploit attributed to North Korean actors.
Binance’s initial probe suggested the breach may have begun with a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, allowing unauthorized access to systems that authorized withdrawals.
The company said it found no evidence of private key leaks from wallets and emphasized that user funds remain safe.
Binance has set aside more than $6.34 billion of its own reserves—much of it already held in the affected tokens—to cover customer losses.
Trump acknowledged the situation while expressing some caution about cryptocurrency.
“It was a hack. That’s the problem,” he said, comparing it unfavorably to traditional banking.
He added that Binance officials had told him they had the matter “pretty much under control” and that they expected to recover the funds.
US authorities, including the FBI, are coordinating with partners to assess the scope of the activity.
North Korean state-linked groups have long targeted the cryptocurrency industry to generate revenue, according to US and cybersecurity assessments.
Firms tracking these operations note that such thefts have contributed billions to the regime’s resources over recent years.
No formal government attribution has been issued yet, and North Korea has historically denied involvement in such activities.
