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On November 12, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of cryptocurrencies worth a total of nearly $1.2 billion. The funds derive from a cyberattack attributed to North Korea against the Binance exchange platform. Concurrently, federal authorities disrupted a fraud scheme named FaceStealer, which the DOJ says was responsible for approximately $400 million in thefts.
Why it matters
The operation highlights the intensification of measures to combat money laundering in the crypto sector. The DOJ stated that the proceeds from the hack are used by North Korea to finance its illegal weapons program. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, rejected the accusations, defining them as a serious political provocation and an attempt to damage the country’s image. For the market, the intervention signals greater collaboration between regulatory bodies and crypto companies in tracing suspicious transactions.
The numbers
The DOJ obtained court authorization to seize nearly $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies stolen during the Binance hack. Sources indicate that the total frozen assets amount to approximately $2.7 billion. This figure includes funds preemptively blocked by companies such as Tether, Ripple, Circle, World Liberty Financial, and Arbitrum before government intervention. The FaceStealer scheme generated proceeds of about $400 million over an 18-month period. Authorities also seized the cloud infrastructure used in the fraud and 900 webcam videos of victims.
What remains to be understood
North Korea has denied any involvement in the hack and U.S. accusations. Furthermore, it has not yet been confirmed with certainty whether social engineering techniques similar to those of FaceStealer were actually used to infect Binance employees during fake job interviews; the DOJ described this hypothesis as a possibility, but not as an established fact.
Sources: CoinDesk, Decrypt, Cointelegraph, Bitcoin Magazine, Protos, CryptoSlate.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice or an investment recommendation.
* Content created with the assistance of artificial intelligence systems.