Chainalysis traced hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen funds to Chinese money laundering networks. The attackers have moved about US$500 million through the TRON blockchain.
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Hackers move nearly US$1 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance through laundering networks
Chainalysis traced hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen funds to Chinese money laundering networks. The attackers have moved about US$500 million through the TRON blockchain.
Binance Halts Withdrawals as Suspected Hack Spurs Crypto Selloff
Hackers move nearly US$1 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance through money-laundering networks. The Binance logo on a smartphone photographed in Gyeongsan, South Korea. (Bloomberg/SeongJoon Cho)
By Micah Barkley and Ben Weiss
November 05, 2026 | 01:57 pm
Bloomberg — The hackers responsible for stealing US$6.3 billion from Binance Holdings Ltd. are moving some of the stolen cryptocurrency through Chinese money-laundering networks, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
The hackers, identified by US authorities as members of the North Korean group TraderTraitor, have been observed transferring the stolen assets through thousands of digital wallets and across multiple blockchains in an attempt to conceal their origin.
North Korean hackers are also said to have used Chinese money-laundering networks in previous thefts, and Chainalysis said it has tracked hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Binance theft — a fraction of the total stolen — flowing into these networks.
Read more: How Binance was hacked: A fake job interview and malware were behind the attack
Flows into money-laundering networks, which include over-the-counter trading desks, suggest that the hackers are trying to move funds off blockchains and convert them into cash, according to Chainalysis.
Much of the overall activity has involved splitting the funds into smaller amounts, swapping cryptocurrencies and transferring assets between blockchains. North Korea has denied being behind the attack.
“Laundering attempts are to be expected after an attack of this scale, but they don’t go unnoticed,” the spokesperson said. “Every movement on the blockchain generates new information that Binance, law enforcement, blockchain analytics firms, issuers and industry partners can use to track, flag and freeze assets.”
A TRON DAO spokesperson said the company has a strong track record of working with law enforcement and analytics firms to “combat the use of blockchain technology for illicit purposes.”
“As an open-source, decentralized protocol, TRON is used by independent third parties, which, as with any successful technology, can lead to abuse by bad actors,” the company spokesperson added.
Read more: Binance sees US$4.7 billion in withdrawals after unprecedented hack
Cryptocurrency firms have frozen about US$3 billion in stolen assets, preventing the hackers from moving the funds. Another US$2.42 billion in cryptocurrency from the Binance attack is held in Bitcoin and Ether, assets the attackers have barely moved since the hack. The remaining assets, totaling nearly US$1 billion, have begun flowing through what Chainalysis says are laundering channels.
Binance disclosed the theft on October 29, in what has become the largest hack of a cryptocurrency platform in history. The exchange said Tuesday that the attackers used social engineering tactics, including fake job interviews and malware, to gain access to its systems.
Chainalysis said that, so far, only an insignificant amount of the stolen assets appears to have flowed into Chinese money-laundering networks. The firm expects the attackers to continue converting the cryptocurrency and eventually try to obtain liquidity through brokers and exchanges, a process that could take months.
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