The FBI attributed to North Korea the theft of more than $6 billion in virtual assets from the Binance exchange on or about October 29 and identified the operation as TraderTraitor, saying it had observed the hackers converting the stolen assets primarily into Ethereum, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, which published the statement.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, told the BBC it had covered 90% of the $6.3bn stolen in Thursday’s hack. The remaining 10% are less liquid tokens that may take longer to source in the required amounts, the company added.