North Korea's Lazarus Group Launders $900 Million in Cryptocurrency
Oct 06, 2023
Cyber Crime / Cryptocurrency
As much as $7 billion in cryptocurrency has been illicitly laundered through cross-chain crime, with the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group linked to the theft of roughly $900 million of those proceeds between July 2022 and July of this year. "As traditional entities such as mixers continue to be subject to seizures and sanctions scrutiny, the crypto crime displacement to chain- or asset-hopping typologies is also on the rise," blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said in a new report published this week. Cross-chain crime refers to the conversion of crypto assets from one token or blockchain to another, often in rapid succession, in an attempt to obfuscate their origin, making it a lucrative method for money laundering for crypto thefts and an alternative to traditional approaches like mixers. According to data gathered by Elliptic, the Lazarus Group's use of cross-chain bridges contributed to a majority of the 111% increase in the proportion of funds sent via s...
