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Firms race to recover remaining Binance theft as funds are mixed
Investigators told CNBC on Friday they are racing to recover remaining proceeds of the Binance theft as about $3 billion stays frozen and attackers move other coins harder to seize.
Crypto-tracing firms and law enforcement are trying to recover remaining proceeds of a theft Binance has estimated at more than $6 billion before the funds can be converted to cash, CNBC reported Friday1.
TRM Labs and Chainalysis have attributed the incident to a North Korea-linked group they call TraderTraitor, according to CNBC1.
Binance pledged to cover losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users, CNBC said1.
Stablecoin issuers including Circle and Tether froze tokens after the theft, and Binance estimated about $3 billion had been frozen so far, CNBC reported1.
Issuers could burn frozen stablecoins and reissue replacements that could be returned through a legal process, according to the account1.
TRM Labs said attackers sold USDT to market makers and borrowed ether against the stablecoin, a route harder to freeze, CNBC reported1.
Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin told CNBC there were no signs of mixer use yet, and the firm instead described automated looping of funds among addresses, including Tron wallets1.
Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, told CNBC the attackers are trying to off-ramp crypto to fiat and that investigators are in a race against time1.
Levin and Redbord said professional money-laundering networks, including Chinese groups they named, buy stolen crypto over the counter, reducing later seizure chances, according to CNBC1.
How much of the remaining unfrozen assets can be recovered is unknown1.
