Harmony Hack: Binance and Huobi Freeze $1.4 Million in Crypto

Binance and Huobi again froze $1.4 million worth of crypto linked to the Harmony Bridge hack. This hack is believed to be attributed to the North Korea-based hacker group Lazarus Group. The two exchanges then collaborated again in order to prevent illicit transactions.

Harmony Horizon bridge hacked by North Koreans

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said it provided information to Binance and Huobi in order to freeze the accounts. This was possible thanks to the information from Elliptic’s investigation tools and the responsiveness of the two exchanges. The two crypto exchanges then acted quickly to freeze accounts linked to the Lazarus Group. The latter being a group of North Korean hackers.

The stolen funds have remained dormant until recently. Investigators began to see their routing through complex chains of transactions, to exchanges. Since the Harmony hack, investigations have shown that Lazarus Group has been using the Tornado Cash privacy mixer. The latter is now sanctioned by OFAC for trying to cover the trail of transactions up to the initial theft. Elliptic nevertheless succeeded in tracing all of the stolen funds sent by the mixer.

Crypto Becomes A Safe Haven For Illicit Activities

According to Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, these events show that the industry takes responsibility for preventing money laundering. It also takes responsibility for preventing crypto from becoming a “safe haven” for illicit activities. He said that as an industry they have a responsibility to ensure that cryptos are a force for good.

Elliptic’s recent efforts have revealed other information as well. For example, Lazarus Group laundered around $100 million in BTC through Sinbad. On January 16, Binance and Huobi platforms managed to freeze and recover 121 Bitcoin linked to the Harmony attack. But that was only a fraction of the millions of dollars laundered over the weekend, according to ZachXBT. Elliptic estimates that Lazarus Group has stolen over $2 billion in crypto since 2017.

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