Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive! The Bybit crypto exchange, that stalwart of digital ducats, has been knocked for a whopping $1.4 billion loop by a band of merry hackers, likely to be the notorious Lazarus Group, with North Korean ties, no less! 🇰🇵💻
The esteemed blockchain security firm, Elliptic, has given us the hot scoop that these pilfered pixels are likely to take a spin in the ol’ digital washing machine—known to you and me as mixers—in a bid to make the trail go as cold as a penguin’s posterior. But, my dear friends, they’ve got their work cut out for them, what with the mountainous pile of purloined assets! 🧺💼
This gargantuan gaffe, which occurred on the 21st of February, has outshone all previous acts of digital derring-do, leaving the Poly Network and Ronin Network heists in the dust. The Lazarus Group, those dastardly devils, have a modus operandi that would make Sherlock Holmes scratch his deerstalker. First, they swap their stolen baubles for something a bit more native, like ETH. 🕵️♂️🔍
In a blog post dated Feb. 23, Elliptic revealed that our clever clogs at Lazarus are now in the throes of the “second stage of laundering,” a process they’ve dubbed “layering.” This involves a veritable shell game of digital dashes, with funds zipping through wallets, scampering across chains, and taking a spin in the decentralized exchange carousel. And let’s not forget the grand finale—a twirl in the mixers, like Tornado Cash! 🌪️💸
Within a mere two hours of the heist, the loot was parceled out to 50 different wallets, each stuffed with a cool 10,000 ETH. These digital coffers are now being “systematically emptied,” which sounds rather like a euphemism for a very organized robbery, don’t you think? 🏴☠️🗺️
Elliptic, with its magnifying glass held high, has identified a certain crypto exchange, eXch, as a rather reluctant hero in this caper, refusing to block the shenanigans despite polite prodding from Bybit. 🤝🚫
In a twist worthy of a Wodehouse novel, eXch has categorically denied any involvement in this monetary masquerade. Oh, the drama! 🎭🙅♂️
Our intrepid blockchain sleuth, ZachXBT, has previously uncovered that Lazarus managed to launder a tidy sum of over $200 million between 2020 and 2023. But, as the world turns, so do the methods of these digital desperados. Chainalysis has noted a shift from mixers to crosschain bridges as the new tool of choice for tidying up ill-gotten gains. 🌉🧼
And in the latest chapter of this saga, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou has announced that the exchange has replenished the $1.4 billion worth of Ether that went on an unauthorized holiday. A new, audited proof-of-reserve report is forthcoming, which should put everyone’s minds at ease—until the next digital drama unfolds! 📄🔄
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2025-02-24 09:06