DOJ Secures Court Approval Targeting $1.2B in Stolen Binance Crypto

The U.S. Department of Justice obtained court authorization to pursue more than $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance, part of a broader recovery effort tied to an attack U.S. authorities attribute to North Korea. The Nov. 12 court orders formalize claims on funds that had already been frozen as investigators traced the movement of stolen assets across wallets and chains. The action matters because it converts a temporary freeze into a legal process for returning funds to victims, while reinforcing the case that state-linked hacking is a persistent risk for major exchanges. What to watch next is whether the orders translate into actual restitution, how much of the $1.2 billion is ultimately recovered, and whether the precedent shapes how exchanges and courts handle future cross-chain thefts.