FBI ASKS NODE OPERATORS TO BLOCK 19 BITCOIN ADDRESSES — THE 18,270 BITCOIN IN THEM HAS NOT MOVED — 74 TRANSACTIONS HAVE SENT DUST IN

On October 31, 2026, the FBI said North Korea’s TraderTraitor group stole more than $6 billion from Binance on or about October 29. It listed 628 addresses: 608 Ethereum, 19 bitcoin and one Solana. It urged “THORNode operators, RPC node operators, instant exchanges, DeFi services, blockchain analytics firms” and other crypto businesses to “block transactions with or derived from” them.

We checked the 19 bitcoin addresses. They are the same 19 that took 18,270.19988827 bitcoin out of Binance’s hot wallet in blocks 973,732 and 973,738 on October 29, the coins we <a href="https://mempolitics.com/story/binance-eip-7702-explanation-18270-bitcoin-left-on-one-key-11-signatures-none-moved-block-973862-2026-10-30/">reported</a> left under one key. At block 974,123, mined at 11:45 UTC on November 1, 2026, not one of those 19 outputs had been spent. Two block explorers agree. The FBI says the thieves are turning stolen coins “primarily into Ethereum.” The bitcoin has not gone anywhere.

Something has reached those addresses, though. Since block 973,748, 74 transactions have sent tiny amounts in: 143 outputs worth 112,582 sats in all. Anyone can send coins to any address, and no one can refuse them. The FBI’s request covers transactions “with” a listed address. It does not say whether a stranger who pushes dust in now counts.

Bitcoin has no freeze button, so the FBI asks the businesses around it. A node you run at home checks the rules, not a list. Exchanges, swap desks and hosted node services can check a list. If the 18,270 coins move, the block will hold only where a business chooses to honor it. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $77,859.