US Authorities File Complaint Eyeing to Recoup Crypto from Lazarus Group

• North Korean coders have penetrated at least 25 cryptocurrency projects.
• The Lazarus Group was the subject of several September FBI warnings.

The United States government initiated the seizure of nearly $2.67 million worth of digital assets taken by the North Korean Lazarus Group of hackers on October 4th via the filing of two formal complaints.

Legal documents indicate that the United States government is attempting to recoup around $1.7 million in Tether USDT that the group took in the 2022 Deribit breach, which resulted in a $28 million loss for the options exchange.

Moreover, after breaking into a Deribit hot wallet, the hackers tried to evade discovery by moving the money via the Tornado Cash mixer and a number of Ethereum addresses.

Multiple Assaults

The Lazarus Group hacked the Stake.com gambling platform in 2023, and US law enforcement authorities are now filing to recover around $970,000 worth of Avalanche-bridged Bitcoin (BTC.b) that was taken in the breach. Stake suffered damages of around $41 million as a result of the malicious assault.

Attacks associated with the Lazarus Group are many, and the ones at Deribit and Stake.com are only two examples. In July 2024, the WazirX exchange was hacked, causing the platform to lose around $235 million. Onchain detectives believe that the Lazarus Group was also involved in this breach.

North Korean coders have penetrated at least 25 cryptocurrency projects, according to a onchain detective report dated Aug. 15 by ZackXBT. The onchain investigators found that developers were stealing funds and compromising code by logging onto projects using false identities. According to ZackXBT, it’s likely that all of the identified developers were employed by the same group.

The Lazarus Group was the subject of several September FBI warnings, one of which addressed social engineering frauds.

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