Ethereum

ZachXBT

Polygon

Read

Recent investigations link North Korea’s Lazarus Group to a series of crypto hacks totaling over $270 million in stolen assets across major platforms in the past 102 days. 
Investigations suggest the latest high-profile hacks targeting crypto entities have been perpetrated by North Korean hackers, particularly the notorious Lazarus Group, with over $270 million stolen over the past 102 days. 
Data from a consolidated list of the last four massive crypto-related hacks sheds light on this. The list was compiled by MetaMask’s lead product manager Taylor Mohana (Tayvano), and featured contributions from prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. 
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"> 
 <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> 
 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"> 
 North Korean state-sponsored hackers aka Lazarus Group have stolen over $270 million dollars worth of crypto in the last 102 days. That's an average of $2.64 million dollars stolen every single day. They show no sign of slowing down. <a href="https://t.co/M90Nyqgjcz" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">https://t.co/M90Nyqgjcz</a> <a href="https://t.co/T9oM4jSsz4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">pic.twitter.com/T9oM4jSsz4</a>— Tay 💖 (@tayvano_) <a href="https://twitter.com/tayvano_/status/1701955484885098881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">September 13, 2023</a> 
 </blockquote> 
 <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
 </div> 
</figure> 
Notably, the latest among these hacks involved an <a href="https://crypto.news/coinex-hot-wallets-drained-of-27-8-million-worth-of-crypto-in-security-incident/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">exploit</a> of crypto exchange CoinEx’s hot wallets. The funds reported stolen amounted to $27.8 million at the time of the initial report. However, the stolen assets rose to $54 million as industry leaders uncovered the incident. 
 You might also like: <a href="https://crypto.news/sec-charges-stoner-cats-nft-creators-for-selling-unregistered-securities/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> SEC charges ‘Stoner Cats’ NFT creators for selling unregistered securities </a> 
Following the hack, ZachXBT <a href="https://crypto.news/lazarus-group-reportedly-behind-the-54m-coinex-hack/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">suggested</a> that the hack was carried out by Lazarus Group. The team at SlowMist, a prominent blockchain security company, confirmed this theory.&nbsp; 
A week before the CoinEx exploit, leading crypto casino platform Stake <a href="https://crypto.news/hackers-transfer-bnb-and-matic-amid-41m-stake-exploit/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">suffered</a> a hack that saw the attackers drain up to $41 million in several crypto assets, including BNB and Polygon (MATIC). They moved the assets from Stake’s hot wallets. 
ZachXBT revealed that the wallets linked to the Stake hack were also leveraged to steal funds during the CoinEX incident. The FBI had <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-identifies-lazarus-group-cyber-actors-as-responsible-for-theft-of-41-million-from-stakecom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">confirmed</a> in a Sept. 6 release that the Lazarus Group was responsible for the Stake hack. 
Furthermore, in July, <a href="https://crypto.news/coinspaid-reveals-how-job-offer-led-to-37m-hack/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">reports</a> suggested that Estonian-based crypto payments resource CoinsPaid had witnessed an attack, resulting in $37 million in stolen funds. The exploit took six months to execute and was also attributed to the Lazarus Group. 
Payment platform Alphapo was also a victim of a large-scale hack in July. The <a href="https://crypto.news/alphapo-hacked-over-23-million-in-bitcoin-tron-and-ethereum-stolen/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">exploit</a> led to the loss of $23 million in various crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Tron (TRX) and Ethereum (ETH). This hack has been traced to the Lazarus Group. 
However, the largest hack attributed to the group occurred in June and <a href="https://crypto.news/stolen-crypto-from-atomic-wallet-traced-to-north-korean-linked-mixer/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">involved</a> over $115 million in crypto theft from Atomic Wallet. Some funds were funneled through wallets linked to the notorious hacking group. 
 Read more: <a href="https://crypto.news/delaware-judge-allows-ftx-to-sell-up-to-100-million-of-coins-every-week/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> Delaware Judge allows FTX to sell up to $100 million of coins every week </a>

North Korea linked to latest crypto hacks, surpassing $270m

crypto.news

Other articles published on Sep 14, 2023

Iris Energy Triumphs with Record Revenues Despite Financial Hurdles

Ethereum sees second-highest on-chain activity in history

Circle Partners with Grab to Expand Web3 in Singapore

Bitgert (BRISE) Takes Giant Leap in Blockchain Development

MENA Web3 and Blockchain Venture Capital Landscape: Insights from Juliet Su of NewTribe Capital

Polkadot Ecosystem Thrives via Zodia Custody and Parity Technologies Partnership

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!