The key facts

  • Yi He denied AlphaWire's report about a Binance engineer's connection with a North Korean agent
  • On the night of October 30, about $6.3 billion was withdrawn from Binance — the largest theft of digital assets in history
  • The FBI claims the North Korean group TraderTraitor is behind the hack, with the bulk of the funds withdrawn in roughly 20 minutes

The exchange co-founder's denial

Binance crypto exchange co-founder Yi He has denied circulating reports that a company engineer had been in a romantic relationship with a spy from North Korea. On the social network X she wrote: “This story sounds more dramatic, but it is not true. ZachXBT never said that.” She was commenting on a publication by AlphaWire, which claimed, citing “new, still unconfirmed data,” that a Binance DevOps engineer had been in a relationship with a North Korean agent and had left his laptop unattended on the day of the hack (Gazeta.Ru).

The record-breaking hack and the FBI's version

The rumors were prompted by the hack of the largest crypto exchange on the night of October 30: about $6.3 billion in various cryptocurrencies was withdrawn from it — the largest theft of digital assets in history. According to the FBI, the attack was carried out by the North Korean group TraderTraitor, and the perpetrators withdrew the bulk of the funds in roughly 20 minutes. The newspaper described individual details of the incident in a detailed article about how the exchange came under attack.

What is known and what remains unclear

Thus, at this point the fact of the hack itself, the amount of stolen funds, and the FBI's version of TraderTraitor's involvement have been confirmed. The claim of an engineer's “romance” with a DPRK agent remains unconfirmed: AlphaWire itself noted that the data had not been verified, and Yi He stated that the researcher ZachXBT, whom the publication apparently cited, had made no such statements. How exactly the hack occurred and how the exchange will compensate for the losses is not specified in the publication. Earlier, the founder of Binance asked Elon Musk “not to troll” the exchange after the incident.