• A self-styled crypto investigator ZachXBT claims that actors allied to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have laundered $17.7 million in ETH from Harmony Bridge.
• The DPRK hackers moved 11,304 Ethereum (ETH) over the weekend and consolidated them into two primary addresses before disbursing them to six different crypto exchanges.
• Binance and Huobi froze a portion of the laundered funds, recovering 124 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $2.8 million.
DPRK Linked Hackers Launder Millions
A self-styled crypto investigator going by the social media moniker ZachXBT claims that actors allied to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have laundered another tranche of funds stolen last year from Harmony’s Horizon Bridge. Funds allegedly received by six crypto exchanges.
Hackers Move 11,304 ETH
ZachXBT tweeted that the DPRK linked hackers moved 11,304 Ethereum (ETH) over the weekend, valued at approximately $17.7 million. They consolidated this money into two primary addresses before sending it out to six different crypto exchanges. Additionally, ZachXBT discovered another address with 5,974 ETH worth $9.4 million, bringing the entire haul laundered over the weekend to 17,278 ETH with a market value of $27.1 million. At the time of writing, 895 Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals had been mapped out to 14 addresses from these exchanges; these are currently worth about $20.6 million in total value.
Lazarus Group Previously Laundered Funds
On Jan 15th 2021, Lazarus Group reportedly behind this hack had moved 41,000 ETH worth 63$5million through Railgun – a privacy and anonymity platform built on Ethereum that uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). The group deposited this money into three main addresses before disbursing it out to more than 350 other associated wallets .
Binance & Huobi Freeze Portion Of Funds
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao indicated that his exchange and Huobi had discovered this activity and frozen 124 BTC worth $2.8 Million at current prices . Together they managed to freeze these accounts which led to recovery of 124 BTC .
Conclusion
To conclude , Actor’s allied with DPRK have managed to launder 27$1 Million dollars in cryptocurrencies using various techniques like consolidating funds and using railgun platform . Exchanges like Binance & Huobi were quick enough to respond on a weekend , freezing some amount leading up recovery of 124 BTC amounting up 2$8 Million dollars eventually .
