Kim Jong-Un’s sister rejects FBI claims linking North Korea to record $6 billion Binance hack: reports

A North Korean official has denied the country was behind the largest crypto hack on record, despite onchain investigators and the FBI attributing the $6 billion exploit to North Korean hackers.

On Monday, Yonhap News Agency reported that Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and a senior government official, rejected the FBI's assessment that North Korea was responsible for last week's Binance hack.

"The FBI is trying to brand the DPRK as a 'cyber criminal state', claiming that it obtained information that a hacking organization 'supported' by the DPRK was involved in the incident," Kim said in a statement, according to Yonhap.

The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block.

Ahead of the attack last week, an attacker deployed and tested malicious code on three wallets before later executing the attack on Binance on Thursday. On Ethereum, the attacker used EIP-7702 to turn a Binance hot wallet into a sweeper controlled by the attacker. It prepared 50 pre-signed authorizations to ensure one would remain valid when executed, according to TRM Labs.

Three firms, including TRM Labs, attributed the attack to North Korean bad actors. Then, over the weekend, the FBI confirmed that North Korea was responsible for the hack. In its release, the FBI referred to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as "TraderTraitor."

Earlier on Monday, Binance published its first set of proof of reserves and said it replenished about 95% of the assets affected by the hack with its own funds.