Over $200 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency was laundered between 2020 and 2023 by the notorious state-backed hackers from North Korea, known as the Lazarus Group. According to an anonymous on-chain researcher named ZachXBT’s X post dated April 29, the money was taken from more than 25 cryptocurrency hacks.When Lazarus initially appeared in 2009, it was already one of the most infamous groups of cryptocurrency hackers.Between the years of 2023 and 2023, the Lazarus Group pilfered cryptocurrency worth about $3 billion.The stolen digital assets were converted by the North Korean hackers using a mix of peer-to-peer (P2P) markets and crypto mixing services, ZachXBT claims.
“Identified accounts at Noones and Paxful (P2P marketplaces) that received funds from the hacks and were used to convert crypto to fiat.”
ZachXBT claims that the hacker group used the handles “EasyGoatfish351” and “FairJunco470” to launder at least $44 million worth of stolen cryptocurrency through the peer-to-peer Paxul and Noones markets.The deposits and trade volumes associated with these usernames match the funds that were pilfered.
The investigation also shows that the stolen money was first swapped for cash and then transformed into the USDT stablecoin.In the past, the company has relied on over-the-counter traders headquartered in China to convert cryptocurrency to fiat money.
Over $374,000 worth of stolen funds were blacklisted by Tether in November 2023, while three out of four stablecoin issuers have blacklisted an additional $3.4 million sitting in a cluster of addresses associated with Lazarus, according to ZachXBT.
17% of all monies taken in 2023—roughly $309 million—are linked to the Lazarus Group.A Dec. 28 analysis by Immunefi stated that over $1.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency was lost in 2023 as a result of attacks and exploits.According to SlowMist, a blockchain security analytics company, the North Korean hacker organization used LinkedIn earlier in April to steal digital assets through targeted malware attacks.Some of the largest cryptocurrency thefts, such as the 2022 Ronin Bridge hack that yielded $625 million in cryptocurrency, were carried out by the Lazarus Group.