The North Korean cyber assembly, known as the Lazarus Group, has reportedly amassed over $47 million in digital currency. This digital currency includes Bitcoin, Ether, BNB, and various stablecoins. Notably, they have a significant holding of Binance USD.
According to Dune Analytics, a subsidiary of 21Shares, Lazarus Group’s wallets hold about $47 million in digital assets. This includes a significant $42.5 million in Bitcoin (BTC), $1.9 million in Ether (ETH), $1.1 million in Binance Coin (BNB), and an additional $640,000 in stablecoins, primarily in Binance USD (BUSD).
However, it’s important to note that the cryptocurrency holdings have significantly decreased since reaching their peak at $86 million. This decline occurred shortly after the Stake.com breach, an incident linked to the Lazarus Group.
The Dune dashboard carefully tracks 295 wallets. These wallets have been identified by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as belonging to this cyber faction.
Remarkably, the ensemble avoids holding privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies like Monero (XMR) or Dash, which are unquestionably more challenging to trace. Meanwhile, the Lazarus cryptocurrency wallets continue to be exceptionally active. With the most recent transaction officially recorded on September 20.
Furthermore, 21.co emphasizes that the ensemble’s holdings are likely greater than the reported figures. In their own words, they state, “We should acknowledge that this represents the lower limit approximation of the Lazarus Ensemble’s cryptocurrency assets, based solely on publicly available data.”
The Lazarus Group Impact on Cybersecurity in 2023
On September 13, Cointelegraph reported that the Lazarus Group conducted a cyberattack on the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx. Notably, this attack resulted in losses exceeding $55 million.
Additionally, the FBI has directly linked the Lazarus Group to breaches involving Alphapo, CoinsPaid, and Atomic Wallet. These breaches collectively resulted in a staggering heist, surpassing $200 million in the year 2023.
However, according to Chainalysis, cryptocurrency heists associated with North Korea-linked hackers have seen a dramatic 80% decrease compared to the previous year, 2022.
As of mid-September, these groups had stolen a total of $340.4 million in cryptocurrency. This marks a significant contrast to the record-breaking $1.65 billion in stolen digital assets witnessed in 2022.
In the final days of the previous week, U.S. federal authorities issued a clear warning about the “significant risk” of potential attacks. These attacks are aimed at organizations within the U.S. healthcare and public health sectors.
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