Asked at the Oval Office whether North Korean hackers were responsible, Trump said, “We don’t know,” adding, “We’re looking at that.”
The incident, described as the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, involved unauthorized transfers from Binance wallets across several blockchain networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP Ledger, Tron and Solana.
Blockchain intelligence firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis identified TraderTraitor, a North Korea-linked hacking group, as the suspected attacker, citing similarities with previous operations attributed to the group, including last year’s $1.5 billion theft from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.
According to TRM Labs, the suspicious transfers began Thursday afternoon, with a substantial portion of the stolen assets moved within a 20-minute period.
Trump characterized the incident as evidence of the risks associated with digital assets, saying, “It’s a hack. These are different people, never see the money anymore. So I’ve always felt it was a little bit dangerous.”
He also said Binance had informed US officials that the situation was “pretty much under control.”
Meanwhile, Binance said its initial investigation indicated that attackers had gained access to withdrawal systems and carried out unauthorized transfers from its cryptocurrency wallets. The exchange said it had found no evidence that the private keys controlling the wallets had been compromised and that investigations into the full extent of the breach were continuing.
In response, Binance suspended deposits and withdrawals while coordinating with law enforcement and other cryptocurrency companies to recover the affected assets.
Blockchain companies have frozen approximately $3 billion linked to the incident, while Binance said it had begun recovering some of the funds.
The exchange pledged to cover all customer losses, initially pointing to its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), an emergency reserve established to protect customers against security incidents. Binance subsequently said it had allocated more than $6.3 billion of its own funds to address the losses.
Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng said Friday in a video posted on X that the company was working with law enforcement and “working nonstop to resolve this, to make the users whole.”
Co-founder Yi He said withdrawals were expected to resume by Sunday.