New data reveals that North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group holds $47 million in cryptocurrencies, most of which is Bitcoin (BTC).
According to data collected by Dune Analytics by 21Shares’ parent company 21.co, wallets associated with Lazarus Group currently hold $42.5 million in Bitcoin, $1.9 million in Ether (ETH), and $1.1 million in Ether (ETH). Approximately $47 million worth of digital assets are stored there, including: Binance Coin (BNB) and an additional $640,000 of stablecoins (mainly BUSD).
However, the amount of cryptocurrency held appears to have decreased from the $86 million the group held on September 6, days after the Stake.com hack involving Lazarus.
The Dune dashboard tracks 295 wallets identified by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as belonging to the hacking group, the paper noted.
Surprisingly, this group does not hold privacy coins such as Monero (XMR), Dash, or Zcash (ZEC), which are probably much harder to track.
Meanwhile, the Lazarus cryptocurrency wallet remains active, with the latest transaction recorded on September 20th.
21.co also pointed out that the group’s holdings could be much larger than reported. “It should be noted that this is a lower bound estimate of Lazarus Group’s cryptocurrency holdings based on publicly available information,” the company said.
Related: 3 steps crypto investors can take to avoid hacking by Lazarus Group
On September 13th, Cointelegraph reported that the Lazarus group carried out an attack against the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx, resulting in at least $55 million in losses.
The FBI has also busted Lazarus for hacking Alphapo, CoinsPaid, and Atomic Wallet, which combined will bring the group’s total theft in 2023 to more than $200 million.
However, Chainalysis reported that crypto theft by North Korea-related hackers has significantly decreased by 80% since 2022. As of mid-September, the total amount of cryptocurrency theft by North Korea-related groups was $340.4 million, down from a record high of $1.65 billion. Digital assets will be stolen in 2022.
Late last week, U.S. federal authorities warned There is a “significant risk” of a potential attack on the U.S. medical and public health sector by the Lazarus Group.
Magazine: $3.4 Billion Bitcoin in a Popcorn Can: The Story of a Silk Road Hacker
