Lazarus Group Launders $1.39 Billion in Stolen Ethereum Within 10 Days
The Lazarus group from North Korea has laundered 499,000 Ethereum (worth $1.39 billion) following the Bybit hack in just 10 days, utilizing crypto mixers and decentralized exchanges.
Key facts:
- ETH price dropped 23% from $2,780 to $2,087 after the hack.
- Lazarus reportedly laundered $5.9 billion through THORChain, earning $5.5 million in fees.
- Bybit co-founder Ben Zhou announced a rewards program for information on the stolen assets, with millions offered.
- 77% of the stolen funds are traceable, while 20% are untraceable and 3% frozen.
- 83% of stolen assets converted to Bitcoin across 6,954 wallets complicates recovery efforts.
- Bybit allocated $140 million for investigators through its "HackBounty program."
The hack involved exploiting vulnerabilities in the Smart Contract and compromising SafeWallet's cloud infrastructure on AWS. Hackers injected malicious code, leading to unauthorized fund transfers.