$1.4 Million Linked to Lazarus Group Frozen on Binance and Huobi

Jimmy Aki
Last Updated:

Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.

Binance and Huobi Global, two leading cryptocurrency exchanges, have announced the retrieval of over $1 million in crypto stolen by the infamous North Korean-based hacker outfit Lazarus Group.

Swift Action Against an Industry Villain 

On Tuesday, top blockchain forensics firm Elliptic reported that Binance and Huobi Group had frozen about $1.4 million in stolen funds linked to the infamous Lazarus Group hacking outfit. According to the company, it had recently noticed that accounts associated with the Lazarus Group had been moving funds.

Upon discovering the accounts were hosted on both exchanges, it passed the intelligence to them, and they were able to act quickly to block the accounts from moving funds.

Elliptic failed to specify the coins moved by the accounts. It did, however, note that the Group appeared to have attempted to use a complex chain of transactions, which included several cryptocurrency exchanges and mixing services.

The stolen funds were also linked to the Harmony hack, a popular layer-1 blockchain platform that was exploited to the tune of $100 million in July 2022. At the time, hackers gained access to Harmony’s Horizon Bridge, which allows assets to be transferred between the blockchain and other chains such as Ethereum and the BNB Smart Chain. They ended up stealing a myriad of coins ranging from Wrapped Ether(wETH) and Binance USD (BUSD) to SushiSwap (SUSHI) and Frax (FRAX). 

Since the exploit, it has been common knowledge that the Harmony hackers have been using cryptocurrency mixers to launder their stolen gains and hide them from both authorities and investigators. Internet sleuths discovered that the hackers had been transferring funds to Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixer that has been under heavy scrutiny from authorities since then.

With Tornado Cash being under sanctions from the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the hackers seem to be looking for other means to move their funds. 

Last month, blockchain researcher ZachXBT reported that the hackers had transferred approximately 17,000 ETH from three controlled wallets to six different exchanges. This came just days after federal investigators confirmed that the Lazarus Group was behind the Harmony Bridge attack.

All Hands on Deck

With this recent discovery and account restriction, blockchain and crypto industry players are taking oversight even more seriously. Elliptic chief executive Simone Maini pointed out that the swift action from both Binance and Huobi shows that both platforms are doing their best to ensure that the rising tide of crypto-enabled theft and money laundering is stopped.

This is especially important in the case of North Korean hackers, who reportedly enjoyed a bumper year in 2020. Earlier this month, a United Nations report pointed out that hacker groups linked to Pyongyang had been responsible for between $630 million and $1 billion worth of stolen crypto last year alone. 

The report, cited by Reuters, also noted that the hacking methods employed by these hackers were more sophisticated than ever, meaning that tracing these funds had been even more challenging for authorities. 

A separate report from investigative firm Chainalysis corroborated this. However, the Binance-owned company linked North Korean hackers to at least $1.7 billion worth of stolen crypto in 2020, making it their biggest year for hacking on record.  

While no one knows what the year holds, it’s clear that actions taken now will go a long way in curbing this growth in hacks, and everyone has a role to play.

About Jimmy Aki PRO INVESTOR

Based in the UK, Jimmy is an economic researcher with outstanding hands-on and heads-on experience in Macroeconomic finance analysis, forecasting and planning. He has honed his skills having worked cross-continental as a finance analyst, which gives him inter-cultural experience. He currently has a strong passion for regulation and macroeconomic trends as it allows him peek under the global bonnet to see how the world works.