Bybit Attackers Launder 45,900 ETH in 24 Hours
Renowned blockchain sleuth Yujin, known as EmberCN, revealed that North Korea’s Lazarus Group laundered 45,900 Ethereum (ETH), valued at $113 million, over the past day.
This transaction has increased the total laundered amount to 135,000 ETH ($335 million), which is 27.05% of the assets stolen from Bybit. Yujin noted that the hackers still control 363,900 ETH ($900 million) in their wallets.
Duration to Launder Remaining Funds
Based on the current laundering rate, Yujin predicts it may take 8 to 10 days for the remaining ETH to be laundered. Previously, the estimation was set between two weeks and a month, now revised to just 10 days.
Bybit Hack and Laundering Overview
The Bybit incident remains the largest known theft, surpassing the $1 billion taken by Saddam Hussein from the Iraq Central Bank in 2003. The Lazarus Group stole $1.46 billion in ERC-20 tokens (498,900 ETH) from Bybit’s cold wallet using malware.
Since then, they’ve been laundering the stolen funds via THORChain, swapping assets like cmETH and stETH for Ethereum. Additionally, they have utilized the instant crypto exchange eXch for laundering, with $75 million worth of stolen funds processed through it, despite Bybit’s attempts to halt the transactions.
Fund Recovery Efforts
While eXch did not assist in blocking the laundering activities, other crypto initiatives, such as Tether and mETH Protocol, have successfully aided in recovering some stolen funds. mETH Protocol recovered 15,000 cmETH (approximately $43 million), while Tether managed to freeze 181,000 USDT taken from Bybit’s wallet.
The industry continues to collaborate to reclaim the stolen funds, despite the attackers’ caution during laundering.
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