Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Korean article.
North Korea is laundering cryptocurrency stolen from Binance through homemade meme coins, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, describing it as a scheme designed to resemble ordinary trading and delay investigators.
The FBI on October 31 attributed the theft of than $6 billion worth of virtual assets from Binance to North Korea.
North Korea Pyongyang has denied being involved but the FBI says it has identified this specific “North Korean malicious” cyber activity as "TraderTraitor."
Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
In its November 9 analysis, Elliptic said those laundering the funds created at least six meme coins on the NEAR blockchain between November 5 and November 7.
About 117,000 NEAR — worth approximately $430,000 at the time of the analysis — passed through them.
Meme coins are tokens inspired by internet jokes, animals, or celebrities, with prices driven by online attention and speculation.
Elliptic assessed that these tokens have no apparent practical purpose other than to move funds within the laundering network.
Elliptic says the launderers created exchange pools holding their tokens and NEAR wallets that contain stolen NEAR, while other wallets in the network sold the same tokens into those pools and collected NEAR.
This replaced direct transfers between wallets with purchases and sales, potentially making recipients look like investors earning legitimate trading profits. Elliptic said network wallets conducted all sales of the six tokens. They were traded intensively soon after creation, with no trading since November 8. Each cost about $90 to create.
All transactions remain publicly recorded on the blockchain, enabling investigators to trace them. But additional steps take time to unravel, helping launderers move funds before the associated wallets are identified, and transactions can be blocked, Elliptic said.
The Binance theft occurred October 29 across 11 blockchains. Elliptic estimates losses at $6.43 billion, which is the largest cryptocurrency theft ever, according to the FBI.
Elliptic’s November 9 update put conversions into bitcoin at approximately $225 million, with $2.85 billion frozen or seized and roughly $3 billion remaining in theft-linked addresses.