The North Korean hacking collective, Lazarus Group, has been detected transferring Bitcoin to several unidentified addresses, reducing their total holdings to 13,441 BTC, as indicated by on-chain analysis.
Data indicates that the group’s Bitcoin (BTC) assets are currently valued at approximately $1.15 billion following these significant transfers. On March 20 at approximately 9:18 AM UTC, one of their wallets dispatched 12.929 BTC, equating to around $1.12 million, to an undisclosed wallet address.
After this transfer of 12.929 BTC, the wallet proceeded to send Bitcoin to four additional wallet addresses. Two unknown addresses received 0.308 BTC each, while one wallet got roughly 14.849 BTC and another received 15.684 BTC. In total, the wallet distributed over 44.07 BTC (worth about $3.76 million) to five different addresses within just three hours.
The Lazarus Group’s strategy of spreading their BTC across multiple wallets suggests a possible intent to launder the funds, thereby complicating any efforts to trace the money back to them.
Earlier today, a crypto exchange CEO asserted that 88.87% of the stolen assets from the exchange remain traceable via on-chain data. They reported that about 86.29% of the stolen funds, equivalent to $1.23 billion, have been converted into 12,836 Bitcoin and distributed across approximately 9,117 wallets.
The CEO suspects that the hackers have been utilizing Bitcoin mixers to obscure the transaction trails, rendering the misappropriated assets even more elusive.
At the time of reporting, the wallet identified as associated with the Lazarus Group holds 13,658 ETH (ETH), valued at close to $27 million. Additionally, it contains $3.17 million in BNB (BNB), $706,400 in DAI (DAI), and $288,870 in BABYDOGE (BABYDOGE). The remaining assets are predominantly in stablecoins such as BUSD (BUSD), USDT (USDT), and USDC (USDC), but Bitcoin remains their primary asset.
The Lazarus Group is a state-sponsored hacking organization from North Korea, active since at least 2009. Their first known operation, dubbed “Operation Troy,” targeted the South Korean government.
The group’s most recent security breach involved the Bybit crypto exchange, resulting in the platform losing around $1.4 billion. This incident is recognized as one of the largest crypto hacks in history.