Trump Says He Would Discuss Binance Hack With North Korea if Pyongyang Was Behind It

President Donald Trump said he would discuss the Binance hacking incident with North Korea if Pyongyang was found to be involved.

Speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on October 31, Trump said, “I don’t know whether North Korea was behind it, but if it was, I would talk to North Korea about this issue.”

Earlier, the Federal Bureau of Investigation identified North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor as being behind the theft of about $6.3 billion in crypto assets from Binance. The FBI said the group is converting the stolen assets into Ether and could attempt further money laundering through decentralized finance, or DeFi, and instant swap services.

Losses tied to North Korea-linked hacks have also been rising. According to Chainalysis, a global blockchain data platform, attacks linked to North Korea accounted for about 89% of all reported crypto hacking losses so far this year. That was up sharply from 15% in 2021.

Binance said it has covered about 90% of the roughly $6.3 billion in losses from the hack. The exchange said it secured the affected assets using company funds, its Secure Asset Fund for Users, or SAFU, and part of its futures insurance fund. Customers will be fully reimbursed. The exchange plans to resume phase-one withdrawal services between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Korea time later on November 1.