Binance and Huobi have frozen approximately $1.4 million worth of cryptocurrency linked to North Korean hackers
This move is part of a larger effort to combat the illicit activities of these cybercriminals and protect the integrity of the digital asset space
Cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Huobi have once again frozen accounts associated with the $100 million Harmony Horizon bridge hack that occurred last June. Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, conducted the investigation and revealed in a report on February 14th that approximately $1.4 million worth of crypto had been frozen from accounts linked to the notorious Lazarus Group, which is based in North Korea. However, the firm did not specify which coins or tokens were frozen.
Elliptic passed on the intelligence to Binance and Huobi, who then acted swiftly to freeze the accounts linked to the Lazarus Group.
“The stolen funds had remained dormant until recently when our investigators noticed them being funneled through intricate chains of transactions to exchanges. By quickly informing these platforms of the illicit deposits, they were able to suspend the accounts and freeze the funds.”
Since the Harmony exploits, it has been well-documented that the Lazarus Group resorted to the now-United States OFAC-sanctioned privacy mixer, Tornado Cash, in an attempt to obscure the transaction trail back to the original theft. While this was intended to make it easier to cash out the funds at an exchange, Elliptic investigators were still able to trace the entirety of the stolen funds sent through the mixer, as stated in their report.
Elliptic CEO Simone Maini emphasized that the events demonstrated the industry's commitment to preventing money laundering and thwarting crypto from becoming a “haven” for illicit activity:
“Today, we detected money laundering and were able to freeze stolen funds linked to North Korea in real time. As a collective, we have the capability and responsibility to ensure that digital assets are not used as a refuge for money launderers and sanctions evaders, but instead are a force for good.”
On January 24, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation attributed the Harmony Bridge attack to the Lazarus Group. This was not the first time that Binance and Huobi had worked together on the issue. On January 16, the two platforms managed to freeze and recover 121 Bitcoin, worth approximately $2.5 million at the time, which were linked to the Harmony attack.
Although this was a significant achievement, it was only a fraction of the $63.5 million that had been laundered over the weekend, according to crypto sleuth ZachXBT. He further claimed that the funds had been funneled through the Ethereum-based privacy protocol Railgun before being sent to three different exchanges.
Recent investigations from Elliptic last week revealed that the Lazarus Group has laundered approximately $100 million in Bitcoin through “Sinbad,” a re-launch of the now OFAC-sanctioned privacy mixer Blender.
Estimates from Elliptic suggest that since the Lazarus Group shifted its focus to the crypto industry in 2017, they have stolen an estimated $2 billion worth of digital assets.
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