New data reveals that the North Korean hacking group Lazarus possesses a staggering $47 million in cryptocurrencies, most of which are Bitcoin, including Bitcoin, Ether, BNB, Binance USD, and various stablecoins.
Wallets associated with the Lazarus Group hold approximately $47 million worth of digital assets, including $42.5 million in BTC, $1.9 million in Ether, $1.1 million in BNB, and an additional $640,000 in stablecoins, primarily Binance USD, according to data compiled on Dune Analytics from 21.co, the parent company of 21Shares.
However, the quantity of cryptocurrency held has decreased from the $86 million the group held on September 6, a few days after Lazarus was implicated in the Stake.com hack.
The Dune dashboard monitors 295 wallets identified as belonging to the hacking group by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Surprisingly, the organization must possess privacy coins such as Monero, Dash, or Zcash, which are arguably more difficult to trace.
In the meantime, Lazarus cryptocurrency accounts remain extremely active, with the most recent transaction recorded on September 20.
Additionally, 21.co noted that the group’s holdings are likely significantly higher than reported. “We should note that this is a lower-bound estimation of Lazarus Group’s crypto holdings based on publicly available information,” it stated.
On September 13, the Lazarus Group attacked CoinEx, which resulted in at least $55 million in losses.
The FBI has also implicated Lazarus in the 2023 breaches of Alphapo, CoinsPaid, and Atomic Wallet, in which the group stole over $200 million.
However, Chainalysis reported that crypto thefts by hackers with ties to North Korea have decreased by an astounding 80% since 2022. By mid-September, groups with ties to North Korea had stolen $ 340.4 million in cryptocurrency, a decrease from the record $1.65 billion in stolen digital assets in 2022.
U.S. federal authorities issued a “significant risk” warning late last week regarding prospective Lazarus Group attacks on U.S. healthcare and public health entities.
