Binance Hack Latest With Chainalysis

Eric Jardine, Head of Research, Chainalysis

Overview

Eric Jardine, Chainalysis's Head of Research, joined Gareth Jenkinson on The Starting Block, where they discussed how Chainalysis conducted onchain tracking of the $6.3 billion Binance hack, the automated and complex money laundering techniques employed by the alleged North Korean group, and how the industry can move forward beyond what has become the worst year to date for hacks and breaches.

Episode 51 of The Starting Block, hosted by The Block's Gareth Jenkinson, was aired live on November 3rd with Chainalysis Head of Research Eric Jardine.

Key topics
• $6.4B exfiltrated from Binance hot wallets on October 29th
• DPRK Trader Traitor group linked via on-chain fund co-mingling
• Large-scale automation used to layer funds across thousands of wallets
• Around 40-50% of stolen funds already frozen by ecosystem coordination
• DPRK behind over 80% of all crypto stolen value in 2026

Outline

- Introduction
- The Block Briefing
- Hot Seat: Eric Jardine Intro
- Tracking the Hack Live
- DPRK Attribution On-Chain
- Automated Money Laundering
- Scale & DPRK Dominance
- What Happens Next

Eric Jardine explained to Gareth how Chainalysis identified the hack in real time, as significant withdrawls began moving out of Binance's hot wallets at around 4pm on October 29th, which ultimately totalled roughly $6.4 billion. The onchain link to North Korea came from a co-mingling of funds: proceeds from previously attributed DPRK hacks tied to TraderTraitor were sitting in a wallet that then received funds from the Binance breach. Jardine noted the attack displayed large-scale automation — recursive loops cycling funds through thousands of addresses — consistent with programmatic layering rather than manual movement, and he drew a distinction between that kind of scripted automation and true agentic AI. The hackers also used DeFi protocols and were actively pivoting toward censorship-resistant assets to avoid freezes.

On effectiveness, Jardine said roughly $3 billion, or 40 to 50 percent of the total stolen, had already been frozen through coordinated action by exchanges, blockchain analytics firms, law enforcement, and stablecoin issuers. He attributed DPRK's sustained dominance in crypto theft — responsible for over 80 percent of stolen value in 2026, up from over 70 percent the prior year — to state-backed motivation and focused training, describing it as a regime that found a way to fund itself through crypto and has leaned into it since at least 2021. Jardine said the ecosystem would continue monitoring the remaining on-chain funds, that additional recoveries were possible before any assets moved fully off-chain into fiat, and that DPRK would almost certainly begin targeting its next victim.

About the guest
Eric Jardine is the Head of Research at Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm that helps governments, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency businesses track on-chain transactions and investigate crypto-related crime, with a particular focus on darknet markets, sanctions activity, scams, and money laundering.