Elliptic Blockchain Surveillance Firm: North Korean Lazarus Group Theft Spree Reaches $240 Million in 104 Days
Nefarious North Korean hacking group Lazarus has stolen nearly $240 million in cryptocurrencies in the past 104 days alone.
In a report published by blockchain surveillance firm Elliptic, Lazarus has been identified as the perpetrator behind a series of major cryptocurrency hacks in recent months, with their activity intensifying.
The most recent attack attributed to Lazarus targeted the global cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx, resulting in an estimated loss of $54 million.
Elliptic's analysis revealed that funds stolen from CoinEx were sent to an address previously utilized by the Lazarus group for laundering funds pilfered from the Drake-backed crypto casino Stake.com, albeit on a different blockchain.
As reported, the FBI has identified Lazarus as responsible for the theft of $41 million from Stake.
Elliptic's findings align with those of on-chain investigator ZachXBT, who noted on Twitter that the CoinEx hacker had inadvertently linked their address to the Stake hack.
The hacker subsequently transferred the stolen funds to Ethereum using a bridge previously employed by Lazarus, before moving them to a wallet address under the hacker's control.
A significant portion of the pilfered funds originated from the Tron and Polygon blockchains.
Furthermore, Elliptic discovered that Lazarus hackers had mixed the funds with addresses associated with the Stake hack and employed an address involved in the $100 million Atomic wallet hack in June.
Based on the blockchain activity and the absence of evidence pointing to any other threat group, Elliptic concluded that Lazarus Group is the likely culprit behind the CoinEx theft.
Recent investigations have connected Lazarus to additional hacks, including the crypto payments platform CoinsPaid
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