North Korea’s Lazarus Group has intensified its efforts to launder money from Bybit after what was considered to be the biggest crypto hacking in history, with $1.4 billion.
On March 1, the cyberattackers transferred another 62 200 ETH (138 millions dollars). They now only have 156.500 Ethereum.ETH) remaining from the original theft, according to an analysis by crypto researcher EmberCN.
With the latest transfer, the amount of money laundered has reached approximately 343,000 ETH. This is almost 68.7% more than the 499,000 ETH that was stolen in the attack on February 21. EmberCN predicts that hackers will be able to clear all remaining funds in the next 3 days based on their current rate.
The accelerated laundering The Federal Bureau of Investigation has recently intervened. In a February 26 public service announcement, the FBI officially attributed North Korea to be responsible for the hacking of $1.5 billion.
FBI confirms North Korean involvement
The FBI announced that North Korea stole approximately $1.5 billion worth of virtual assets on or around February 21, 2025 from Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange.
This specific North Korean cyber-operation has been designated by the FBI as “TraderTraitor.”
The announcement shows that TraderTraitor is moving fast, and has already converted several stolen assets into Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. These cryptocurrencies are then dispersed among thousands of different addresses across multiple blockchains.
FBI officials believe that these assets are likely to be laundered further and converted into fiat currencies.
The FBI actively solicits the assistance of private companies. The FBI has also requested that RPC node providers, blockchain analytics companies, DeFi Services, and other virtual assets service providers block transactions related to addresses used by TraderTraitor to launder stolen funds.
Elliptic is a Blockchain analytics company that has flagged over 11,000 possible wallet addresses associated with the hacking operation.
Chainalysis claims that hackers are using various methods to mix funds to disguise the theft. Also, they have converted a portion of ETH into Bitcoin.BTCDAI stablecoin (and other assets)
This group has used primarily decentralized exchanges and cross-chain bridges as well as instant swap services, without any Know Your Customer requirements.
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Source: crypto.news
