---
title: "US court lets DOJ seize $1.2 billion of the $6.3 billion stolen from Binance in crypto's biggest heist"
description: "The Justice Department's order is the first hard number in the record Binance heist, and the only one in the fight between TRM Labs and Chainalysis that neither vendor can shape. Most of the frozen money was stopped by the stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, and Circle is the only listed stock in that chain."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Security"
published: 2026-11-15T18:17:33.624Z
modified: 2026-11-15T18:17:33.624Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/us-court-lets-doj-seize-1-2-billion-of-the-6-3-billion-stolen-from-binance-in-crypto-s-biggest-heist
language: en
keywords: "Crypto, Binance, Cybercrime, Stablecoins, North Korea"
---

# US court lets DOJ seize $1.2 billion of the $6.3 billion stolen from Binance in crypto's biggest heist

> The Justice Department's order is the first hard number in the record Binance heist, and the only one in the fight between TRM Labs and Chainalysis that neither vendor can shape. Most of the frozen money was stopped by the stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, and Circle is the only listed stock in that chain.

A US court has authorized the Justice Department to seize or restrain more than $1.2 billion of the cryptocurrency stolen from [Binance](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/binance) on October 29, the largest theft in crypto's history [1][2]. US authorities and private partners have frozen more than $2.7 billion of the $6.3 billion haul, which the FBI attributes to a North Korean group it calls TraderTraitor [1][2]. The order matters beyond its size: it is the first figure in this recovery that neither of the analytics firms claiming credit can shape.

## The freeze switch did the work, not the tracing

[TRM Labs](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/trm-labs) says the attackers took control of Binance's transaction-signing infrastructure, the machinery that authorizes transfers, instead of stealing wallet keys [1]. Much of the haul sat in [Tether](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tether)'s USDT and [Circle](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/circle)'s USDC, dollar tokens whose issuers keep a blacklist inside the token contract; once an address lands on it, the coins cannot move anywhere the token is honored [3].

[Tether says it froze more than $1.5 billion of USDT](https://techreport.com/news/software/circle-tether-freeze-binance-hack/) [3]. [Circle blacklisted the attackers' address 23 minutes after the stolen USDC reached it](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/circle-stock-fell-9-day-064736494.html), working alongside the US Secret Service [4][5]. Chainalysis watched the thieves convert $325 million of stablecoins into Ethereum in roughly 20 minutes to escape issuer reach, yet the first freezes began within hours [1].

*Chart: **Of the $6.3 billion stolen from Binance, $2.7 billion is frozen and $1.2 billion under court order** Bar chart of the $6.3 billion stolen from Binance, the $2.7 billion frozen, and the $1.2 billion under court order*

*DOJ and FBI figures announced November 12, 2026; the freeze total covers stablecoin issuers, exchanges and government partners. [1][2]*

## The vendors are selling numbers nobody audits

[TRM announced its Beacon Concierge freeze desk on November 12](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trm-labs-launches-beacon-concierge-to-help-law-enforcement-worldwide-interdict-and-seize-illicit-crypto-funds-on-any-chain-in-any-asset-1036758421): 15 cases for 14 agencies in 10 countries, more than $35 million frozen, on a network it says interdicted over $200 million and covers 80 percent of trading volume [6][7]. Chainalysis claims $34 billion of lifetime freezes for authorities [8]. The figures use different methods and nobody outside the companies checks them [8].

Behind them sits a contract fight: Tether and Tron [wound down the T3 crime unit they built with TRM in August](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/tether-tron-scrap-t3-crime-unit), two months before the theft, and rebuilt the same idea with Chainalysis this week; Chainalysis has also sued the US government over an ICE contract awarded to TRM, [as we reported](https://theinference.org/article/tether-and-tron-move-their-crypto-crime-unit-from-trm-labs-to-chainalysis-trm-launches-a-rival-desk) [9][10].

## Circle is the listed name the market misread

Circle, the only listed company in the recovery chain, fell 9 percent in the first session after the hack, amid a wider crypto selloff, even as it froze the coins [5]. [Binance has set aside more than the stolen amount to repay users](https://theinference.org/article/binance-covered-95-of-the-6-3-billion-crypto-theft-with-its-own-money-the-fbi-blames-north-korea), so the open exposure is the rest of the haul, much of it in assets no issuer can switch off [3][4].

[About two-fifths is frozen](https://theinference.org/article/north-korea-took-6-36-billion-from-binance-and-2-4-billion-is-beyond-any-freeze). Under a fifth sits under court order, and that gap is the real loss-given-a-hack once rescue funds are counted [1]. The pressure is compounding on the other side too: the DOJ separately seized the infrastructure behind FaceStealer, a deepfake video-call scheme that took more than $400 million from crypto workers [11].

The vendors found the money. The issuers stopped it. Only a court can take it, and that is the scoreboard to follow.

## Takeaway

Stablecoin issuers stopped most of the money and two analytics vendors are selling the credit, but the $1.2 billion under court order is the only figure in this recovery that neither of them can shape.

## Sources

1. [Times of India, 'FBI seizes $1.2 billion in crypto stolen from Binance in record $6.3 billion heist', 13 November 2026](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/fbi-seizes-1-2-billion-in-crypto-stolen-from-binance-in-record-6-3-billion-heist/articleshow/135787066.cms)
2. [CNBC, 'U.S. seizes $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen from Binance', 13 November 2026](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/13/us-seizes-binance-hack-crypto.html)
3. [Tech Report, 'How Circle and Tether Froze Billions From the Binance Hack', 1 November 2026](https://techreport.com/news/software/circle-tether-freeze-binance-hack/)
4. [Crypto Briefing, 'US Secret Service teams up with Circle to recover funds stolen from Binance', 30 October 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/secret-service-circle-recover-binance-funds/)
5. [Yahoo Finance, 'Circle Stock Fell 9% in a Day as the Binance Hack Hit Crypto Stocks', 31 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/circle-stock-fell-9-day-064736494.html)
6. [Markets Insider (GlobeNewswire), 'TRM Labs Launches Beacon Concierge to Help Law Enforcement Worldwide Interdict and Seize Illicit Crypto Funds', 12 November 2026](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/trm-labs-launches-beacon-concierge-to-help-law-enforcement-worldwide-interdict-and-seize-illicit-crypto-funds-on-any-chain-in-any-asset-1036758421)
7. [Coinpaper, 'TRM Labs Says $200M in Illicit Crypto Was Intercepted as New Global Seizure Service Launches', November 2026](https://coinpaper.com/38855/trm-labs-says-200-m-in-illicit-crypto-was-intercepted-as-new-global-seizure-service-launches)
8. [Grafa, 'Crypto crime tools compete as investigations move cross-chain', November 2026](https://grafa.com/en/news/crypto/crypto-crime-tools-compete-as-investigations-move-cross-chain)
9. [Decrypt, 'Tron, Tether and Chainalysis Form a New Crypto-Crime Task Force, Replacing One That Just Collapsed', 12 November 2026](https://decrypt.co/383139/tron-tether-chainalysis-new-crypto-crime-task-force-replacing-trm)
10. [Bitcoin Magazine, 'Tether and Tron Quietly Scrapped T3 Crime Unit Two Months Before $6.3 Billion Binance Hack', 5 November 2026](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/tether-tron-scrap-t3-crime-unit)
11. [The Hacker News, 'FBI Says North Korean Hackers Stole Over $400 Million in Crypto Using Deepfake Video Calls', 13 November 2026](https://thehackernews.com/2026/11/fbi-says-north-korean-hackers-stole.html)


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US court lets DOJ seize $1.2 billion of the $6.3 billion stolen from Binance in crypto's biggest heist — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/us-court-lets-doj-seize-1-2-billion-of-the-6-3-billion-stolen-from-binance-in-crypto-s-biggest-heist