North Korean hackers are washing Binance loot through homemade memecoins

North Korean hackers are laundering Binance loot through homemade memecoins. Plus: Robinhood backs OKX–ICE tokenized stocks as most companies opt out, and Trump says he knows ‘nothing’ about World Liberty’s UAE ties. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Monday, November 9, 2026 North Korean hackers are creating memecoins to wash loot from $6.3 billion Binance hack North Korean hackers used six homemade memecoins to launder about 117,000 NEAR, worth roughly $430,000, from the $6.3 billion Binance hack, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. The hackers paired each token with NEAR in its own liquidity pool on a decentralized exchange, then used one set of wallets to buy the memecoins with stolen NEAR and another to sell them back — so the money never moved directly between wallets and looked like trading profit instead of hack proceeds. Almost all trading came from the launderers’ own wallets, with outsiders making up less than 1% of one token’s volume, and trading stopped by Nov. 8. The FBI blames North Korea’s TraderTraitor group for the theft, which has also used THORChain to convert stolen assets into bitcoin. Elliptic says the tactic slows tracing but doesn’t erase the trail. Read more → Finance Robinhood backs tokenization of its stock on OKX–ICE platform even as most companies opt out Robinhood won’t stand in the way of OKX–ICE’s planned tokenized stock venue, a spokesperson confirmed, becoming the third company known not to object, after Securitize and BitGo. About 90% of the companies initially selected — 56 of 62, per a CoinDesk tally of the venue’s Nov. 5 notice — have objected. The six without a disclosed objection all have deep crypto ties: Robinhood, Securitize, BitGo, Circle, Coinbase and Strategy. Circle declined to say whether it objected, and Coinbase and Strategy didn’t respond. The list could still change: OKX–ICE has five business days to disclose an objection, so one filed on Nov. 3 could show up as late as Nov. 10. The venue hasn’t announced a launch date. 3-minute read → Finance Trump says he knows ‘nothing’ about World Liberty’s UAE ties as Justin Sun challenges filings President Trump said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday that he co-owns World Liberty Financial but knows “nothing” about its dealings with UAE-linked investors. The comments come as Tron founder Justin Sun challenges the Trump family’s crypto venture in federal court. According to Sun, World Liberty is citing its UAE citizenship to contest federal jurisdiction over his lawsuit about frozen WLFI tokens, after first disclosing only Florida citizenship. Sun is seeking sanctions, alleging the company withheld ownership details until they could help it escape federal court, and plans to refile in California state court once that dispute is resolved. World Liberty countersued in May, dismissing Sun’s case as a publicity stunt. 2-minute read → Know someone who should be reading this? Share this newsletter See all of CoinDesk’s newsletters    CoinDesk, Inc., 61 9th Avenue, 5th Floor, New York,NY,10011,USA, Unsubscribe Manage Preferences   Copyright © 2026 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.