Alex Lab Links $4M Bitcoin DeFi Exploit to North Korean Lazarus Group Amid Token Value Fall
Summary:
Bitcoin layer-2 developer, Alex Lab, suspects that the $4 million exploit it experienced in May was orchestrated by the formidable North Korean hacking collective, Lazarus Group. The exploit involved siphoning about $4.3 million and $13.7 million of the Stacks (STX) token. Despite offering the hackers a 10% bounty to return the stolen funds, Alex Lab received no response. The incident led to a significant drop in the trading value of their native ALEX token.
Alex Lab, a Bitcoin layer-2 developer, has expressed suspicion that the infamous North Korean hacking group, Lazarus Group, might be behind the $4 million exploit the developer fell victim to in May. On June 25, Alex Lab pointed to three wallet addresses that were used by hackers on May 16 to withdraw funds from the Bitcoin-fueled decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. The team further stated they worked in tandem with independent blockchain investigator ZachXBT to gather sufficient evidence linking Lazarus to the incident. Source: Alex Lab
The developer alarmed its users on May 16, disclosing that their BNB Smart Chain bridge was breached by attackers who drained approximately $4.3 million worth of funds. In addition, the hackers exploited about $13.7 million of the Stacks (STX) token. Some of the stolen amount was transferred to mainstream exchanges and was later seized. On June 20, Alex Lab reported that the assailant carried out more than 11,800 STX transactions, employing several DeFi protocols and bridges such as Arkadiko, Bitflow, and Allbridge to launder the looted STX.
The development team affirmed that the security breach involved the hackers getting hold of the team's private keys, but was comforting users that the Alex Protocol's smart contracts remained uncompromised. Related: Alex Labs unveils post-exploit recovery blueprint. The team proposed to the attackers a 10% reward for bringing back 90% of the stolen funds, committing to discontinue any legal proceedings if the funds were returned, which the attackers disregarded. The native ALEX token of the Bitcoin Layer-2 protocol has seen a decline of 10% over the past week and a 47% drop in the last month, with its current trading price at $0.07. In the last 30 days, the ALEX token has plummeted almost by half. Source: CoinMarketCapMagazine — ‘Bitcoin Layer 2s’ aren’t truly L2s: Learn why this is consequential.
Published At
6/25/2024 7:38:38 AM
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