Key Notes
- The Secret Service says it helped industry partners freeze stolen Binance assets within minutes.
- Federal investigators are tracing funds and asking crypto services to block laundering addresses.
- Freezing stolen crypto and replacing customer backing are separate from returning the stolen assets.
The U.S. Secret Service says it is working with federal law-enforcement partners to investigate the Binance theft and pursue the stolen cryptocurrency, after helping industry firms freeze a significant portion of the assets within minutes of the October 29 incident.
The November 1 statement confirms a coordinated response to the hack, which Binance estimates caused approximately $6.3 billion in losses. It does not announce that all the funds have been recovered or guarantee a full recovery.
Federal Agencies Coordinate the Investigation
The Secret Service identified the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation among its partners. The effort also includes the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the District of Columbia and the Central District of California, alongside the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and National Security Division.
The agency said investigators began working with private-sector partners within minutes on Thursday afternoon to identify and freeze stolen crypto. It directed businesses to the FBI’s published list of addresses holding, or previously associated with, proceeds of the theft.
The FBI Targets the Laundering Routes
In its October 31 cyber alert, the FBI attributed the theft of more than $6 billion to North Korea, identifying the activity as TraderTraitor. The bureau said it and its Secret Service and IRS-CI partners had observed the attackers converting stolen assets primarily into ETH.
Investigators expect further laundering through decentralized finance and instant-swap services. They are asking crypto businesses, analytics providers, THORNode operators and RPC node operators to block transactions connected to the identified addresses.
The attribution builds on the findings covered in our TRM Labs report. Our full Binance hack investigation explains the attack sequence and the evidence available so far.
Frozen Funds Are Not Yet Returned Funds
Binance has reported approximately $3 billion frozen. Separately, Elliptic’s analysis, updated November 1, said it had verified $2.85 billion frozen or seized, largely in USDT and USDC. The figures come from different reporting scopes and valuation times and should not be added together.
Elliptic estimates the theft at $6.43 billion and describes it as almost certainly the largest single known theft of any kind. That is the firm’s assessment; Binance’s approximate $6.3 billion figure remains the company estimate used here.
A freeze restricts movement of assets. It does not establish that those assets have been returned to Binance. Our recovery explainer examines the obstacles between tracking stolen crypto and getting it back.
Customer Backing Is a Separate Commitment
In Recovery Update #4, Binance said it had covered approximately 95% of the impacted amount using its resources and continued buying the remaining affected tokens. The exchange says it will absorb the losses rather than pass them on to users.
That replacement figure is separate from law enforcement’s recovery of the original stolen funds. Binance also began reopening withdrawals in phases on November 1 as security checks were completed.
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