North Korea’s Lazarus Group tied to $305 million crypto breach of Japan’s DMM exchange

2 months ago

Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT suggested that North Korea-backed Lazarus Group orchestrated the $305 cardinal hack of the Japan-based DMM Bitcoin exchange.

In a societal media post connected July 14, ZachXBT pointed retired the similarities successful the “laundering techniques and off-chain indicators” utilized by the Lazarus Group and those seen successful the question of funds by the DMM Bitcoin hackers.

In May, DMM confirmed it was hacked for 4,502.9 BTC, valued astatine astir 48 cardinal yen ($305 million). Subsequently, the steadfast raised astir $320 cardinal to compensate its impacted users.

$35 cardinal laundered

ZachXBT reported that the DMM Bitcoin hackers moved astir $35 cardinal of the stolen funds to the online marketplace Huione Guarantee successful July.

The researcher noted that hackers usually dump stolen BTC into a crypto mixer and past span it to Avalanche oregon Ethereum blockchains utilizing THORChain, Avalanche Bridge, and Threshold.

Once connected these astute declaration blockchains, the hackers swap the funds for USDT and span to the Tron network. From there, the USDT is transferred to Huione. This sophisticated laundering pattern, involving concatenation hopping and mixers, mirrors the methods utilized by the notorious Lazarus Group.

Interestingly, the USDT transfers appeared to person caught the attraction of stablecoin issuer Tether, which blacklisted $29.6 cardinal of its USDT tokens successful a Tron-based wallet. This wallet, connected to the Huione marketplace, had received astir $14 cardinal from the DMM Bitcoin hack wrong 3 days, ZachXBT noted.

Bitrace, a Web3 investigative instrumentality provider, further corroborated the seizure, stating that the Tron address was frozen due to the fact that it assisted malicious players “in laundering funds for transgression activities specified arsenic fraud and crypto theft.”

Huione Guarantee has go a fashionable marketplace for scam operators. It is portion of the Huione Group, a Cambodian conglomerate linked to the ruling Hun family.

Last week, blockchain analytics steadfast Elliptic reported that crypto wallets utilized by Huione Guarantee and its merchants person received implicit $11 cardinal since 2021, astir of which, it suggested, tin beryllium linked to fraud oregon illicit activity.

The station North Korea’s Lazarus Group tied to $305 cardinal crypto breach of Japan’s DMM exchange appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.

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