The FBI announced on Thursday that it had recovered over $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. The theft, which occurred last month, involved approximately $6.3 billion in crypto and is considered the largest crypto heist in history. The FBI has previously linked the theft to a North Korean hacking group called TraderTraitor.
The U.S. government and private sector have so far frozen more than $2.7 billion of the stolen funds. The Justice Department revealed that it had obtained court authorization to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion of that total. Typically, the U.S. government will file a claim of forfeiture with a judge, who will then determine who has a legitimate claim to the recovered funds.
In a separate development, the FBI blamed North Korea for another cyber scheme known as FaceStealer. This scheme involved the hijacking of popular messaging apps and the creation of deepfake videos, resulting in the theft of $400 million worth of cryptocurrency over the last 18 months.
U.S. officials have repeatedly accused North Korea of using cyber schemes to generate funds for its regime, including its illicit weapons program.