Hackers try to use major exchanges to launder $63 million in Ethereum from the Harmony Bridge attack, according to Onchain researchers.
On Jan. Onchain researchers found that funds taken during the Harmony bridge attack had been moved on August 15th, 2023. The 41,000 ethereum that was moved by the alleged thieves, who are allegedly connected to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group, is worth $63.2 million at the time of writing.
Onchain researchers help major exchanges freeze funds and track stolen Ethereum from the Harmony Bridge attack.
The Harmony development team revealed that $100 million in cryptocurrency funds had been taken from the Horizon bridge on June 23 of last year. According to reports, the attacker took control of the bridge using a multi-signature wallet. Onchain researcher Zachxbt found that 206 days after the Horizon bridge loss, money related to it started to move, with 41,000 ETH (worth $63.2 million at the current exchange rate) being transferred.
The funds were indeed frozen, according to Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance. CZ wrote, “We discovered Harmony One hacker fund activity.”. We froze their accounts after they attempted to launder money through Binance. This time, Huobi was utilized. We helped the Huobi team block their accounts. In total, 124 BTC have been recovered, the executive from Binance said.
The funds were initially connected to the Lazarus Group in North Korea by blockchain intelligence company Elliptic. Attacks against cryptocurrency projects have allegedly been launched by Lazarus Group frequently in recent years. The $620 million Ronin bridge attack is thought to have also been carried out by the North Korean hacker group.