The North Korean hacking group owns at least $47 million in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin and various stablecoins, including Binance USD.
North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group holds $47 million worth of cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin ( BTC ), new data shows.
According to data compiled by 21Shares parent company 21.co on Dune Analytics, wallets related to Lazarus Group currently hold approximately $47 million worth of digital assets, including $42.5 million in Bitcoin, $1.9 million in Ethereum (ETH) ), $1.1 million in digital assets. Binance Coin (BNB) and an additional $640,000 in stablecoins, primarily BUSD.
However, days after the Stake.com hack in which Lazarus was implicated, the amount of cryptocurrency held by the group appears to have declined from the $86 million it held on September 6.
It noted that the Dune dashboard tracked 295 wallets identified by the FBI and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as owned by the hacking group.
Surprisingly, the group does not hold any privacy coins such as Monero (XMR), Dash or Zcash (ZEC), which may be harder to trace.
Meanwhile, the Lazarus crypto wallet remains highly active, with the last transaction recorded on September 20.
21.co also noted that the group’s holding may be much higher than reported. “We should note that this is a lower-end estimate of Lazarus Group’s cryptocurrency holdings based on publicly available information,” it said.
On September 13, Cointelegraph reported that the Lazarus organization attacked the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx, causing at least $55 million in losses.
The FBI also charged Lazarus with involvement in the Alphapo, CoinsPaid, and Atomic Wallet hacks, which together stole more than $200 million from the group in 2023.
However, Chainaanalysis reports that the number of cryptocurrencies stolen by North Korea-linked hackers has dropped significantly by 80% compared to 2022. As of mid-September, North Korea-linked groups had stolen a total of $340.4 million in cryptocurrency, down from a record $1.65 billion in 2022. Digital assets are stolen in 2022.
Late last week, U.S. federal authorities warned of a "significant risk" that the Lazarus Group could launch attacks on U.S. health care and public health entities.
