North Korea Is Creating Fake Meme Coins to Launder Millions From the $6.4B Binance Hack

Six meme coins created on NEAR helped North Korean hackers move stolen funds, with almost no genuine trading activity involved. North Korean hackers are creating their own meme coins to move stolen stash from the Binance hack, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. The attackers are using newly launched tokens and decentralized exchange liquidity pools to move funds between wallets without making direct transfers. Binance Laundering Tactic Elliptic flagged the activity on Tron and NEAR, along with a similar method on Solana. The process involves creating a token, pairing it with a legitimate crypto such as NEAR or a stablecoin, and adding it to a liquidity pool on a decentralized exchange. The attackers then use one set of wallets to buy the newly created token with stolen funds. A separate group of wallets sells those tokens back into the pool and receives the original crypto. This puts the liquidity pool between the wallets, which makes it harder to immediately connect the funds entering the pool with those coming out. The blockchain analytics firm said it first identified the method while tracking funds stolen from Bybit in 2025. In that case, North Korean launderers c...