Lazarus Group's Cryptocurrency Holdings Decline, Yet Hacks Continue Unabated
Summary:
North Korea's hacker collective, Lazarus Group, holds approximately $47 million of cryptocurrency, primarily in Bitcoin. The current holding shows a drop from $86 million held on September 6, post their alleged involvement in a hack. The wallets identified as owned by Lazarus Group are actively transacting and are likely to hold higher amounts. Recent attacks the group is reportedly involved in continue to increase the collective's stolen total, despite a report showing a substantial year-on-year decrease in associated cyber thefts.
Lazarus Group, a hacker collective from North Korea, currently possesses $47 million in digital currency, primarily Bitcoin (BTC), according to recent information. This data was compiled from 21.co, 21Shares' owner, and shows that the hacker group's associated wallets contain approximately $47 million in digital currency. This includes $42.5 million in Bitcoin, $1.9 million in Ether (ETH), $1.1 million in Binance Coin (BNB), and another $640,000 mainly in the form of BUSD stablecoins. However, it seems that these figures represent a significant decrease from the $86 million they held on September 6, soon after the Stake.com hack in which Lazarus Group was implicated. The data platform, Dune, monitors 295 wallets, identified by the FBI and the Office of Foreign Assets Control, as being under the control of this hacker group. It’s surprising to see that the group doesn’t hold any privacy-focused coins like Monero, Dash, or Zcash, which are considered harder to track. Lazarus Group's crypto wallets are still very active, with the most recent transaction recorded on September 20. 21.co suggests the group likely owns more than what's been revealed. They affirm these estimates are a conservative measure based on accessible public information. It was also reported by Cointelegraph on September 13 that Lazarus Group orchestrated the attack on CoinEx cryptocurrency exchange, resulting in a loss of at least $55 million. The group has also been implicated by the FBI in the Alphapo, CoinsPaid, and Atomic Wallet intrusion, escalating their combined theft in 2023 to more than $200 million. Conversely, Chainalysis reports that cyber thefts linked to North Korean groups have plummeted by an impressive 80% since 2022. By mid-September of this year, these groups had stolen $340.4 million, significantly less than the staggering $1.65 billion recorded in digital asset theft in 2022. Last week, US federal authorities issued a cautionary statement of significant risk, warning of the possibility of Lazarus Group targeting U.S. healthcare and public health sector institutions.
Published At
9/25/2023 5:35:53 AM
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