Norway has seized a record $5.8 million in cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers last year, according to a statement issued by Norwegian police on Thursday.
North Korean hackers stole $625 million from a blockchain project tied to the crypto-based game Axie Infinity in March 2022. The crime was one of the largest of its sort on record, and it was traced to a North Korean hacker outfit known as “Lazarus” by the US.
“This is money that can be used to finance the North Korean regime and their nuclear weapons programme,” Norway’s senior public prosecutor, Marianne Bender, said in a statement.
North Korea has denied any involvement in hacking or other activities.
Okokrim, Norway’s national economic crime agency, announced the seizure of 60 million Norwegian crowns ($5.84 million), calling it “one of the largest seizures of money ever made in Norway” and a record amount for a cryptocurrency seizure.
Okokrim stated that it collaborated with crypto-tracking specialists from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the U.S.-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, last year was the worst year on record for cryptocurrency heists, with hackers stealing up to $3.8 billion, led by attackers linked to North Korea.
Sky Mavis, the firm behind Axie Infinity, is situated in Vietnam, while Aleksander Larsen, the company’s founder, is Norwegian. Larsen declined to comment but commended bitcoin exchange Binance for assisting Norwegian authorities with the seizure in a tweet.
“When we learn of bad actors on our platform, we intervene and take appropriate action, including freezing funds and working with law enforcement to return funds to their rightful owner,” a Binance spokesperson said.
According to a presently private United Nations study seen by Reuters, North Korea stole more bitcoin assets in 2022 than in any previous year and targeted the networks of multinational aerospace and defense industries.
