[CoinDesk] North Korea's Binance hack faces U.S. crackdown as DOJ targets $1.2 billion in stolen crypto

The U.S. Department of Justice has moved against North Korea-linked theft of cryptocurrency, targeting roughly $1.2 billion in stolen assets tied to the 2022 Binance hack and announcing it seized infrastructure used in the "FaceStealer" scheme, which authorities say stole as much as $400 million in crypto. The action escalates U.S. enforcement against Pyongyang's state-backed hacking operations, which have funneled billions of dollars in digital assets toward funding the regime. The FaceStealer campaign is known for using fake profiles and malware to compromise victims' devices and drain wallets. Authorities have not disclosed the full breakdown of recovered versus still-outstanding funds. What to watch next is whether the seized infrastructure yields further recoveries and whether exchanges and investigators can trace additional North Korean-linked flows across chains.