The Lazarus Group hacker has successfully shifted a staggering $63.5 million worth of misappropriated money.
In Brief
The Lazarus Group, a notorious hacking organization from North Korea, funneled $63.5 million from the hacking of Harmony’s bridge utilizing a system called Railgun.
As of this writing, exchanges like Binance and Huobi have placed a temporary freeze on around $2,579,944 worth of funds. of stolen funds.
The North Korean hacker group Lazarus managed to transfer $63.5 million (approximately 41,000 ETH) stolen during the Harmony Bridge breach. Just this past weekend, from January 13 to January 14, these on-chain movements were documented.
Funds were sent through Railgun, a privacy-centric smart contract platform that obscures the identities involved in crypto transactions. This technology allows users to mask wallet addresses on public ledgers, making it extremely difficult to track their movements. Unfortunately, while tools like Railgun are intended for privacy, they are sometimes exploited by malicious actors to launder illicit gains and obscure their trails.
In the aftermath, Lazarus Group pooled the stolen assets and distributed them among three exchanges: Binance, Huobi, and OKX. They then swiftly withdrew the funds, a typical tactic for hackers looking to obfuscate any traces. Additionally, they utilized the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, which is currently prohibited in the U.S., to further conceal their activities.
This $63.5 million represents part of the bounty stolen by Lazarus Group during their hacking of Harmony’s Horizon Bridge last June. Their audacious attack became easily linked back to them. $100 go missing from Harmony On the night of January 16, a tweet was sent out detailing the attack, along with a report including over 350 wallet addresses tied to the incident.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT While it's unfortunate that crypto hacks occur so frequently, Twitter users still find enjoyment in following ZachXBT's investigations and findings. list I find a peculiar enjoyment in this form of digital art. Kudos to you for your fantastic work, sir. 🫡
Moreover, the diligence of the blockchain investigator may have aided Binance in tracing the movement of funds from the Harmony One hacker, prompting the exchange to freeze the assets. The Huobi exchange also acted promptly to secure the hackers' accounts. Together, they managed to reclaim around 124 BTC, translating to nearly $2,579,944 at the time of this update.
Regrettably, the exchanges have only managed to recover a small slice of what the hacker pilfered from Harmony One.
Please keep in mind that the details provided here are not legal, tax, investment, financial, or any form of professional advice. We strongly recommend that you only invest amounts that you can afford to lose and seek guidance from an independent financial advisor if you find any aspects unclear. For more information, please refer to the issuer’s or advertiser’s terms and conditions as well as the available help and support sections. MetaversePost strives to provide reliable and impartial reporting, but please be aware that market conditions can change without prior notice. $62 million stolen Valeria serves as a reporter at Metaverse Post, focusing on fundraising, AI developments, the metaverse, digital fashion, NFTs, and various aspects related to web3. report With a Master’s degree in Public Communications, Valeria is now pursuing a second major in International Business Management. In her leisure time, she loves exploring photography and fashion styling. Her passion for journalism and style was ignited at the young age of 13, when she launched her first fashion-centric blog.
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