The hackers responsible for the February 21 Bybit breach have stepped up their money-laundering activities, moving another 62,200 Ether (ETH) on March 1, valued at approximately $138 million.
This brings the total amount of laundered funds to 343,000 Ether, or 68.7% of the stolen $1.4 billion in crypto. A pseudonymous analyst, EmberCN, expects the remaining stolen Ether, roughly 156,500, to be laundered within the next few days.
Despite efforts by U.S. authorities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to block the hackers’ transactions, the North Korean Lazarus Group continues to operate at full speed.
The FBI had shared 51 Ethereum addresses linked to the hackers, and blockchain analytics firm Elliptic flagged over 11,000 wallet addresses possibly connected to the exploiters. In addition, the FBI and other organizations have been pressuring crypto exchanges, node operators, and cross-chain bridges to block these transactions.
The hackers have been using decentralized exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and instant swap services to convert the stolen Ether into Bitcoin (BTC), stablecoins like Dai (DAI), and other assets.
One of the services involved in facilitating the transfers, THORChain, has faced criticism for allowing North Korean-linked transactions. After a controversial vote to revert a decision blocking these transactions, one developer of THORChain, “Pluto,” announced they would no longer contribute to the protocol.
The Bybit hack remains the largest exploit in the history of the crypto industry, surpassing the $650 million Ronin bridge hack in 2022.
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