North Korean Hacker Group Transfers Bitcoin
The North Korean hacker group, Lazarus Group, has reportedly sent Bitcoin to multiple unknown addresses, reducing their total holdings to 13,441 BTC, based on on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence.
As of March 20, at approximately 9:18 AM UTC, the group transferred 12.929 BTC (equivalent to $1.12 million) to an undisclosed wallet. Following this, Bitcoin was sent to four additional addresses, with two wallets receiving 0.308 BTC each, another receiving around 14.849 BTC, and the last one receiving 15.684 BTC. In total, over 44.07 BTC (valued at $3.76 million) was distributed across five different wallets within a three-hour timeframe.
This action of the Lazarus Group to spread their BTC holdings may be aimed at laundering the funds, complicating tracking efforts.
Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, highlighted that 88.87% of the stolen funds from his exchange remain traceable via on-chain data. He estimated that 86.29% of the stolen assets (around $1.23 billion) has been converted into 12,836 BTC, spread across approximately 9,117 wallets. Zhou suspects that the usage of Bitcoin mixers is being employed to obscure the transaction trails, making recovery even more challenging.
As of the latest updates, the wallet identified as belonging to the Lazarus Group holds 13,658 ETH (valued at $27 million), $3.17 million in BNB, $706,400 in DAI, and $288,870 in BABYDOGE, alongside various amounts in stablecoins like BUSD, USDT, and USDC. The majority of the group’s wealth is concentrated in Bitcoin.
The Lazarus Group, a state-sponsored hacking entity of North Korea, has been operational since at least 2009, with its first known operation called “Operation Troy,” aimed at the South Korean government. Their most recent theft involved a hack on Bybit, resulting in losses of approximately $1.4 billion, marking one of the largest crypto heists in history.
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