The Lazarus Group, a notorious North Korean hacker organization, has long been considered a villain in the cryptocurrency world, reportedly stealing a total of billions of dollars from projects and networks. Now, pseudonymous on-chain detective. ZachXBT It collapsed exactly. how The group appears to have laundered more than $200 million of the hacked cryptocurrency funds into fiat currency.
Lazarus has been identified as the group behind some of the most notable cryptocurrency-related hacks in recent years. that appointed by the FBI the $41 million hack of Drake-backed gaming company Stake.com; $622 million misused Total accumulation of Ronin gaming network Over $2 billion in digital assets Throughout the theft.
His extensive reportZachXBT analyzed over 25 hacks spanning multiple blockchains, tracking capital through multiple coin mixers and exchanges over a three-year period from August 2020 to October 2023.
According to the report, the Lazarus Group used several mixing devices during its money laundering attempts. cryptocurrency coin mixer Attempts to mix up the origin and destination of a transaction by mixing it with other tokens, transactions, or addresses. North Korea-related hackers specifically used Ethereum mixers. tornado cache And Bitcoin-based chip mixer.
In addition to repeatedly linking tokens across the blockchain to further obscure the path of funds, the hacker group also used methods such as: Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange. These exchanges allow individuals to exchange assets directly with each other without the intervention of a third party such as an exchange. The group specifically used Bitcoin peer-to-peer exchanges. no one and Paxful.
With the help of industry heavyweights such as cryptocurrency exchange Binance and leading Ethereum wallet MetaMask, ZachXBT identified several accounts believed to be linked to the Lazarus Group. The account in question received $44 million from the Lazarus hack, online sleuths claim, and was able to successfully convert the hacked funds into fiat currency.
His findings are consistent with previous reports that the Lazarus Group laundered money through over-the-counter (OTC) traders who settled their trades on exchanges. The most representative example of these is Woohuihui, he was accused of facilitating payments to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in April 2023. He was added to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s list of Specially Designated Nationals. owned or controlled by the target country.
Editor: Andrew Hayward
