Atomic Wallet hackers laundered $12 million through a decentralized exchange
Date: 2023-07-01 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: IN WORLD
North Korean hackers using cross-chain bridges and a decentralized exchange were able to launder at least $12 million stolen from Atomic Wallet
Hackers of the Atomic Wallet cryptocurrency wallet have successfully laundered at least $12 million in cryptocurrency. This was announced on Twitter by PeckShield analysts.
According to them, the attackers first tried to cover their tracks through dozens of transfers between wallets, then converted the cryptocurrency through the Avalanche Bridge cross-chain bridge and ultimately exchanged ether (ETH) for bitcoin (BTC) through the decentralized exchange GMX.
The founder of the MyCrypto crypto wallet, Taylor Monahan, believes that thousands of people are engaged in cryptocurrency laundering in North Korea. She bases her guesses on the fact that laundering processes take a day and go on almost continuously. At the same time, in parallel with the laundering, Beijing-linked attackers deployed several smart contracts to obfuscate the surveillance of transfers, Monahan noted.
The investigator, under the pseudonym ZachXBT, shares the view that the North Korean group Lazarus is behind the hacking of Atomic Wallet. According to both, the guilt of the North Korean hackers is proved by the "very strange transfers" characteristic only of this group in the process of laundering cryptocurrency.
As Monahan writes, the traces of Lazarus' activities are different from other hackers. The group relies desperately on cross-chain bridges and is not very worried even if it exposes its activity in attempts to launder cryptocurrency.
However, what exactly is the main difference between the activities of Lazarus and other hackers, Monahan did not specify. According to investigators, at the end of June, hackers were able to launder cryptocurrency belonging to 800 users of Atomic Wallet. Monahan claims that centralized exchanges were able to freeze a lot of stolen cryptocurrency, but the names of the sites and the scale of the locks were not disclosed.
According to the blockchain firm Elliptic, the amount of losses from hacking Atomic Wallet amounted to at least $100 million. Hundreds of thousands more dollars associated with the hack went to Binance, Bitget, and JustSwap wallets. It's unclear if the exchanges were able to stop criminals from laundering cryptocurrency.
