cyrpto 1.39B, Bybit, ETH, Group, hack, launders, Lazarus Mark March 4, 2025 0 Comments

Lazarus Group launders all $1.39B in Bybit hack ETH

The Lazarus group of North Korea would have whitened 499,000 ETH, around $ 1.39 billion, stolen by bybit in just 10 days.

According to an article of March 4 on X by the Embercn chain analyst, who followed the stolen funds, a large part of Ethereum (Ethn) was channeled through Thorchain (RUNE), a decentralized transversal liquidity protocol, and converted into Bitcoin (BTC).

The pirates cleaned the 499,000 ETH ($ 1.39 billion) stolen from Bybit, and the entire process lasted 10 days.

The ETH price has dropped 23% in the process (from $ 2,780 to $ 2,130 now).

Thorchain, the main channel of pirates to use money laundering, also obtained $ 5.9 billion in volume of transactions and $ 5.5 million in costs due to hackers.

This article comes from #Bitget｜@Bitget_zh sponsor https://t.co/osoknzfhkg pic.twitter.com/quwummv6zh

– embers (@embercn) March 4, 2025

Thorchain has managed $ 605 million in transactions in the past 24 hours only. The platform was criticized for its involvement in the facilitation of illegal transactions, after having recorded $ 5.9 billion in volume and collected $ 5.5 million in fees during the whitening process.

A critic on x summary To Thorchain’s response as “neglect at best, at worst, at worst”. While other protocols acted accordingly to stop the movement of stolen funds, the Thorchain validators have taken no significant measure. Pluto, a basic contributor, resigned to protest after a governance proposal to stop ETH transactions has been rejected.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Bybt, Ben Zhou, has since provided an update on the movement of stolen assets. In an article on March 4 on X, he revealed that 77% of stolen funds remain traceable, while 20% have been dark and that 3% were frozen.

3.4.25 Executive summary on hacked funds:
Total hackers of 1.4 billion USD around 500,000 ETH, 77% are still traceable, 20% have become dark, 3% have been frozen.
Breakdown:
– 83% (417,348 ETH, ~ 1 billion dollars) were converted to BTC with 6,954 wallets (on average 1.71 BTC each). This and …

– Ben Zhou (@benbybit) March 4, 2025

According to Zhou, 83% of whitewashed funds were converted into Bitcoin, distributed on 6,954 portfolios, with 72% ($ 900 million) from these funds passing through Thorchain. In addition, after being transferred via Exch, 16% of the assets became untraceable and the OKX web3 proxy treated another 8% (100 million dollars).

Bybit has since launched Lazarusbounty.com, a website for monitoring funds, and it provides bonuses for exchanges that help recover stolen assets. Until now, $ 2.17 million in awards have been paid at 11 bonus hunters, with Mantle, Paraswap and Zachxbt among the main contributors.