A pseudonymous crypto analyst revealed that North Korea’s Lazarus Group laundered another 62,200 Ether worth $138 million from the February 21 Bybit hack on March 1. This leaves only 156,500 Ether remaining to be moved.
Since the hacking incident, approximately 343,000 Ether of the 499,000 stolen funds have been transferred out of the crypto exchange, equivalent to 68.7% of the total stolen amount.
The FBI has shared 51 Ethereum addresses linked to the Bybit hackers and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has flagged over 11,000 crypto wallet addresses that may be connected to them.
Crypto forensics firm Chainalysis found that the hackers used decentralized exchanges, crosschain bridges, and instant swap services to convert stolen Ether into Bitcoin, Dai stablecoin, and other assets without proper Know Your Customer protocols. One of these protocols is THORChain, which has faced criticism for facilitating a significant share of transfers made by North Korean hackers.
THORChain’s developer “Pluto” stated that they would no longer contribute to the protocol after a vote to block North Korean hacker-linked transactions was reversed. The founder of THORChain, John-Paul Thorbjornsen, also distanced himself from the protocol and mentioned that none of the sanctioned crypto wallet addresses have interacted with it.
The $1.4 billion Bybit hack on February 21 is considered one of the largest exploits in the crypto industry, surpassing losses from the $650 million Ronin bridge hack on March 23, 2022.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bybit-hackers-resume-money-laundering-activities-moving-62200-eth