The U.S. Department of Justice has obtained a court order to seize or freeze cryptocurrency assets worth more than $1.2 billion stolen during a massive hack of the Binance exchange in late October. This is a new stage in the investigation of one of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history.

This is stated in an official announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, published on November 12.

According to the American agency, through joint efforts of government agencies and private companies, crypto assets worth more than $2.7 billion have already been frozen. Of this amount, more than $1.2 billion are now subject to a court order for seizure or further blocking.

At the same time, the court order does not yet mean the final confiscation of all specified assets or their return to the rightful owners. Procedures for establishing ownership and returning funds are ongoing.

We would like to remind you that on October 29, hackers stole digital assets worth more than $6 billion from Binance. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation linked the attack to North Korean group TraderTraitor, which American law enforcement considers associated with military structures of the DPRK.

According to the Department of Justice, the perpetrators continue to attempt to conceal the origin of the stolen funds using cryptocurrency bridges, transaction mixing services and exchanges. American law enforcement agencies are tracking the movement of assets and cooperating with cryptocurrency platforms to block suspicious operations.

The FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service and several divisions of the Department of Justice are involved in the investigation. Earlier, the FBI issued a warning to cryptocurrency companies with a list of addresses that, according to the investigation, are used for laundering stolen assets.

The U.S. Department of Justice emphasizes that North Korean hacker groups use cryptocurrency thefts to finance the DPRK regime, including its illegal weapons programs. American authorities intend to continue searching for and seizing the remaining stolen funds.

Earlier it was reported that after the massive cyberattack on Binance, U.S. banking regulators began examining potential risks to the traditional financial sector.

Based on materials from: U.S. Department of Justice.