North Korea’s Lazar Group Makes Over $200M in Hacked Crypto Since 2020

The Lazarus Group, a notorious North Korean government hacker, made more than $200 million worth of stolen crypto between 2020 and 2023.

According to an April 29 X post by anonymous on-chain researcher ZachXBT, the funds have been stolen in more than 25 crypto hacks.

Lazarus is one of the most famous group of crypto hackers, which first appeared in 2015. It is in 2009. In total, the Lazarus group has stolen more than $3 billion in crypto assets in the six years to 2023.

North Korean hackers used crypto hybrid services and peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces to exchange the stolen digital assets, ZachXBT reported.

“Accounts on Nones and Paxful (P2P marketplaces) that received funds from hackers and used to convert crypto to fiat.”

According to ZachXBT, a group of hackers used two usernames “EasyGoatfish351” and “FairJunco470” to swindle at least $44 million worth of crypto through Paxul and Noones' peer-to-peer marketplaces. These usernames show deposit and trade amounts consistent with the stolen funds.

According to the investigation, the stolen funds were converted into USDT (USDT) stablecoin before being converted into cash and released. The group has historically relied on China-based over-the-counter traders for crypto-to-fiat conversions.

More than $374,000 worth of stolen funds were blacklisted by Tether in November 2023, and three of the four stablecoin issuers held an additional $3.4 million in a pool of addresses linked to Lazarus, ZachXBT reported.

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Lazar Group In 2023, 17% of hacked crypto was stolen

More than $309 million, or 17% of the money stolen in 2023, was attributed to the Alazarus group. In the year 2023 saw more than $1.8 billion worth of crypto disappear due to hacking and exploits, according to a December 28 report by Immunefi.

In early April, a North Korean hacking group was using LinkedIn to steal digital assets with targeted malware attacks, blockchain security analytics firm SlowMist reported.

The Lazarus group was behind some of the biggest heists in the crypto industry, including the 2022 Ronin Bridge hack, which resulted in $625 million in stolen cryptocurrency.

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