Bitcoin & Nuclear Winter 💣
State-supported North Korean hackers, using the Lazarus Group moniker, stole billions of dollars worth of crypto in less than ten years. Their operations made North Korea the fifth-biggest country in terms of Bitcoin holdings. According to the UN report, nearly half of the North Korean nuclear program’s costs are covered via stolen crypto. 🤑
Lazarus Group has been mentioned in the news often lately. According to Arkham Intelligence, as of Mar. 17, 2025, Lazarus Group is holding around $1.14 billion in BTC. Recently, Lazarus Group converted stolen ETH funds into bitcoins. The latest estimation shows that following the Bybit hack and money laundering operation, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the holder of 13,518 BTC. It places the country after the U.S., China, UK, and Ukraine ahead of Bhutan and El Salvador in terms of BTC holdings.
The same day, it was reported that OKX had to suspend its DEX aggregator following consultations with authorities. Reportedly, the exchange employees detected a coordinated attempt by Lazarus Group to access the DEX aggregator. On Mar. 11, Bloomberg reported that the EU authorities were investigating the OKX web3 services in relation to the Bybit hack and a money-laundering operation associated with it.
On Mar. 10, 2025, The Socket Research Team revealed that Lazarus Group infiltrated the npm ecosystem with six malicious packages that use BeaverTail malware aimed to steal credentials, extract cryptocurrency data, compromise developer spaces, and perform other malicious activity. The packages mimic the names of popular trusted libraries. Five other packages were placed on GitHub.
Earlier, on Feb. 21, the North Korean hackers managed to conduct the biggest heist in history, according to Elliptic, stealing $1.4 billion worth of crypto from the Bybit exchange.
Lazarus Group attacks
Not much is known about the Lazarus Group. However, the group’s earliest cyber crimes date back to 2009. The group is acting as an advanced persistent threat (alternatively, Lazarus Group is known as APT38). It undermines global cybersecurity while using the stolen assets to compensate for the poor economic state of North Korea mangled by sanctions.
In the first years, the group was targeting major banks. In 2017, hackers demanded a BTC ransom during the massive WannaCry attack attributed to Lazarus Group. The same year, Lazarus shifted its focus to the crypto sector. The first targets were crypto exchanges in the U.S. and South Korea.
In a string of 2017 operations, hackers stole crypto from mining power marketplace Nicehash and crypto exchanges Bithumb and Youbit. In 2022, Lazarus hackers stole $615 million worth of crypto from the Ronin Network. Over 17% of all crypto stolen in 2023 is attributed to Lazarus hacks. WarziX and Bybit were the latest large-scale crypto exchange hacks carried out by Lazarus Group.
What places Lazarus Group in a special position is that this unit is supported by the government, which is in opposition to most countries. The institutions and individuals affected by the Lazarus Group attacks were the U.S., China, Russia, South Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, and many other countries
Read More
- Cookie Run Kingdom Town Square Vault password
- Maiden Academy tier list
- Pi Network’s Grand Migration: 10 Million and Counting!
- Kingdom Come Deliverance 2: Lion’s Crest DLC Quest Guide
- Former ‘Bachelorette’ Star Katie Thurston Reveals Breast Cancer Diagnosis: “Waiting on Learning What Stage”
- Cuddly Cats Take Over in the Wildest Night of the Living Dead Remake!
- Cookie Run Kingdom: Shadow Milk Cookie Toppings and Beascuits guide
- NEAR Protocol Launches New Governance Proposal
- Carrie Underwood Says It Was ‘Impossible’ Not To Feel Nostalgic In Return To American Idol, But One Part Was Apparently Pretty Painful
- After The Odyssey’s First Look At Matt Damon’s Odysseus, Fans Think They’ve Figured Out Who Tom Holland Is Playing
2025-03-18 14:54