U.S. authorities have seized around $1.2 billion in virtual assets stolen from cryptocurrency exchange Binance last month, the Department of Justice said Thursday, as it vowed action against cyberscams originating from North Korea, CNBC reported.
Over $6 billion was stolen from Binance on Oct. 29, which the Justice Department attributed to actors linked to the North Korean military. Collective efforts between the U.S. government and the private sector have resulted in more than $2.7 billion of that amount being frozen, CNBC reported. The FBI blames the attack on members of the North Korean military it refers to as "TraderTraitor."
The Justice Department said it was taking coordinated action against what it called the North Korean government's "schemes to fund its regime through the massive theft of cryptocurrency." That includes "the court-authorized seizure and restraint of more than $1.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency recently stolen from Binance." Justice Department units, law enforcement partners, and virtual asset service providers have been working to intercept the stolen assets. Efforts to track and freeze the funds are ongoing, as TraderTraitor actors continue to launder them through various cryptocurrency channels, CNBC reported.
A separate deepfake scam, FaceStealer
Authorities have also seized cloud-based infrastructure used in a massive identity impersonation scam known as "FaceStealer," which has seen more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen over 18 months, the Justice Department said. In that scheme, hackers set up fake video meetings using stolen accounts and recordings of people known to the target, with AI-generated deepfakes. The hackers then say a technical problem requires a fix, install malware, take over the victim's communications, steal their cryptocurrency, and target their contacts — sometimes months or more than a year after the initial compromise. Individuals working in the cryptocurrency and web3 industries are prime targets, CNBC reported.
The Binance theft was large enough to shake confidence in crypto market security. The $1.2 billion court-authorized seizure is a major recovery, but it is only part of the more than $6 billion taken on Oct. 29. More than $2.7 billion has been frozen, the Justice Department said, yet efforts to track and freeze the rest are still underway as TraderTraitor actors keep moving funds through cryptocurrency channels. The FaceStealer case, with more than $400 million stolen over 18 months, shows a second track: not only a military-linked exchange heist, but also deepfake meetings aimed at people in crypto and web3.