Huobi And Binance Freeze $1.4m In Crypto Linked To North Korean Hackers

Binance and Huobi, two cryptocurrency exchanges, have frozen accounts associated with the $100 million Harmony Horizon bridge attack on June 24, 2022. From accounts associated with the infamous Lazarus Group, which operates out of North Korea, approximately $1.4 million worth of cryptocurrency was frozen by the trading platforms.

According to a report that the blockchain analytics company Elliptic released on February 14, the investigation was carried out. However, the company did not specify which tokens or coins had been frozen.

Elliptic explained that it passed the information on to Binance and Houbi, who promptly froze the accounts linked to the Lazarus Group: “The stolen funds remained dormant until recently when our investigators began to see them funneled through complex chains of transactions, to exchanges. By promptly notifying these platforms about these illicit deposits, they were able to suspend these accounts and freeze funds.”

It has been well documented that Lazarus Group used the privacy mixer Tornado Cash, which is now approved by OFAC in the United States, in an effort to trace transactions back to the initial theft.

The report stated that Elliptic investigators were able to trace the entirety of the stolen funds that were sent through the mixer in this case, despite the fact that this is said to make it simpler to cash out funds at an exchange.

Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, said that the events showed that the industry was taking on the responsibility of keeping crypto from becoming a "haven" for illegal activity and money laundering: “Today, money laundering was detected and stolen funds linked to North Korea were frozen, in real-time. As an industry, we have the power and responsibility to prevent digital assets becoming a haven for money launderers and sanctions evaders, and ensure that they are a force for good.”

On January 24, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States also identified the Lazarus Group as the perpetrators of the attack on the Harmony bridge. Binance and Huobi have previously worked together on the issue.

The two platforms were able to freeze and retrieve 121 Bitcoin that was connected to the Harmony attack on January 16 and were worth $2.5 million at the time.

Elliptic discovered last week that Lazarus Group has laundered approximately $100 million in Bitcoin through "Sinbad," which they claim is a relaunch of Blender, the privacy mixer that is now approved by OFAC.

According to estimates from Elliptic, Lazarus Group is believed to have stolen well over $2 billion in cryptocurrency since shifting its focus to the industry in 2017.