Binance, Huobi team up to recover $2.5M from Harmony One hackers

Security teams astatine crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi worked unneurotic to frost and retrieve 121 Bitcoin (BTC) from hackers down the Harmony span exploit. 

In a tweet, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the hackers person tried to launder their funds done the Huobi exchange. After this was detected by Binance, they contacted and assisted Huobi to frost and retrieve the integer assets deposited by the hackers.

We detected Harmony One hacker money movement. They antecedently tried to launder done Binance and we froze his accounts. This clip helium utilized Huobi. We assisted Huobi squad to frost his accounts. Together, 124 BTC person been recovered. CeFi helping to support DeFi #SAFU!

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 16, 2023

According to Zhao, the exchanges recovered a full of 121 BTC, which is estimated to beryllium worthy astir $2.5 cardinal astatine the clip of writing. 

In a caller post, on-chain crypto detective ZachXBT besides highlighted anterior to Binance and Huobi freezing and detecting the funds, the hackers down the exploit were moving astir 41,000 Ether (ETH), worthy astir $64 cardinal successful the past weekend. 

1/2 North Korea’s Lazarus Group had a precise engaged play moving $63.5m (~41000 ETH) from the Harmony span hack done Railgun earlier consolidating funds and depositing connected 3 antithetic exchanges. pic.twitter.com/huDumaJeSh

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 15, 2023

According to the crypto sleuth, aft moving the funds, the hackers consolidated and deposited the integer assets connected 3 antithetic crypto exchanges. However, the on-chain detective did not specify the names of the exchanges utilized by the exploiters. 

Related: Backlash arsenic Harmony proposes minting 4.97B tokens to reimburse victims

On Jun. 24, the Harmony squad detected the exploit, reporting $100 cardinal successful funds compromised. The hack highlighted concerns antecedently brought up by assemblage members astir immoderate of the mutisigs securing the Horizon bridge.

On Jun. 30, the Lazarus Group, an infamous North Korean hacking enactment was identified arsenic a fishy behind the $100 cardinal Harmony hack. Blockchain investigation steadfast Elliptic noted that the mode successful which the hack was conducted was akin to different Lazarus Group attacks. 

The Horizon span hack is 1 of the largest exploits and hacks successful 2022. Analysts judge that the Lazarus Group targeted the worker login credentials to breach Harmony's information system. The hackers past deployed laundering programs to determination the stolen assets.