The FBI has recently suspended a total of 6 BTC wallets assumed to be associated with the DPRK-based Lazarus Group. It has come to light that these 6 wallets contain a total of 1580 Bitcoin (BTC) tokens accounting for almost $40 million. At the same time, it is widely speculated that these funds were accumulated as a result of several cryptocurrency hacks over the past year.
The FBI has also warned a number of crypto companies that the sudden movement of all funds stolen by the DPRK-based hackers could serve as a sign that they are looking forward to selling them. The FBI has also highlighted the six BTC wallets and these have been mentioned as follows:
– 3LU8wRu4ZnXP4UM8Yo6kkTiGHM9BubgyiG
– 39idqitN9tYNmq3wYanwg3MitFB5TZCjWu
– 3AAUBbKJorvNhEUFhKnep9YTwmZECxE4Nk
– 3PjNaSeP8GzLjGeu51JR19Q2Lu8W2Te9oc
– 3NbdrezMzAVVfXv5MTQJn4hWqKhYCTCJoB
– 34VXKa5upLWVYMXmgid6bFM4BaQXHxSUoL
Apart from highlighting them, the FBI also asked crypto firms to diligently monitor these wallets and resort to the use of blockchain data to keep proper tracks and checks of any potential movement of these stolen funds.
The DPRK-backed Lazarus Group Continues Making Moves
The DPRK-based hacking group has been an active player when it comes to exploits in the crypto world. It can also be assumed that the infamous hacking group has managed to steal billions of dollars over the years. TRM Labs has recently issued a report that highlights that the group might have possibly stolen crypto funds worth around $2 billion since 2018. The Lazarus Group was also considered to be highly active throughout 2022 as it managed to steal almost $1 billion worth of crypto assets.
Keeping in mind the activity throughout 2022, the Lazarus Group was alleged to be the mastermind behind Harmony’s Horizon Bridge and Sky Mavis’ $625 million exploit on the Ethereum-linked Ronin Bridge last year. Despite the sudden increase in exploits as a result of increased sophistication in the methods used, blockchain technology still makes it difficult for hackers to move their ill-gotten gains.
As these exploits continued to increase, law enforcement agencies worked alongside numerous crypto companies in an effort to freeze the stolen funds linked to similar exploits. Just earlier this year, Huobi and Binance jointly froze crypto assets worth $1.4 billion as it was speculated that the exploit was linked to the DPRK. Similarly, $63 million worth of assets linked with the Harmony Bridge attack were also frozen by crypto exchanges.
