Pyongyang has finally spoken out about the Binance hack—and its response was a firm denial.
The facts: North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, published a statement by Kim Yo Jong on Nov. 2 calling the FBI’s accusations “absurd rhetoric” and a “serious political provocation.” She accused Washington of trying to label North Korea a “cybercriminal state.” On Oct. 31, the FBI accused the North Korea-linked TraderTraitor group of stealing about $6.3 billion from Binance on Oct. 29. Elliptic reported that about $2.85 billion of the stolen funds had been frozen or seized, and Binance said it had covered around 95% of the losses.
My take: this denial doesn’t erase the on-chain evidence—TRM Labs and Chainalysis had previously expressed high confidence in the attribution—but it does change the status of the case: the attribution is now officially disputed, rather than being merely a finding by analytics firms. For markets, that adds uncertainty around sanctions and further freezes, although the $2.85 billion in frozen funds limits selling pressure from the stolen coins themselves. BTC is still around $77,000, according to KuCoin’s Nov. 3 daily report.
What I’m watching next: the official U.S. and Binance responses to this denial, further movements of the stolen funds, and whether the amount frozen rises above $2.85 billion.
Do you think this official denial changes anything, or is it just a new diplomatic chapter in a case with strong on-chain evidence?
This is my analysis, not financial advice—always DYOR.
#Binance #KeamananCrypto $BTC
The facts: North Korea’s state news agency, KCNA, published a statement by Kim Yo Jong on Nov. 2 calling the FBI’s accusations “absurd rhetoric” and a “serious political provocation.” She accused Washington of trying to label North Korea a “cybercriminal state.” On Oct. 31, the FBI accused the North Korea-linked TraderTraitor group of stealing about $6.3 billion from Binance on Oct. 29. Elliptic reported that about $2.85 billion of the stolen funds had been frozen or seized, and Binance said it had covered around 95% of the losses.
My take: this denial doesn’t erase the on-chain evidence—TRM Labs and Chainalysis had previously expressed high confidence in the attribution—but it does change the status of the case: the attribution is now officially disputed, rather than being merely a finding by analytics firms. For markets, that adds uncertainty around sanctions and further freezes, although the $2.85 billion in frozen funds limits selling pressure from the stolen coins themselves. BTC is still around $77,000, according to KuCoin’s Nov. 3 daily report.
What I’m watching next: the official U.S. and Binance responses to this denial, further movements of the stolen funds, and whether the amount frozen rises above $2.85 billion.
Do you think this official denial changes anything, or is it just a new diplomatic chapter in a case with strong on-chain evidence?
This is my analysis, not financial advice—always DYOR.
#Binance #KeamananCrypto $BTC