Convicted hacker: Laundering stolen crypto is harder than stealing it

A convicted hacker says laundering stolen cryptocurrency is harder than stealing it, following a $6 billion hack of Binance attributed to North Korean operatives. Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty to a $4.5 billion laundering scheme, called the stolen funds a "hot potato." Lichtenstein, now a "white hat" hacker, said the post-hack phase is the hardest part because blockchain transactions are publicly traceable and platforms can freeze funds. He advised law enforcement to act within 48 hours, as AI accelerates the splitting and shuffling of assets across blockchains to break trails. He warned that open-source AI models, lagging frontier systems by months, could soon enable sophisticated hacking by anyone, not just nation-states. Binance said it has covered 90% of stolen customer funds and plans to resume withdrawals on schedule.