• Binance and Huobi seize $1.4 million of crypto funds related to the June 2022 Harmony Bridge exploit.
• The attack was conducted by North Korean hackers, which is linked to the Lazarus crime group.
• Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic notified Binance and Huobi of illegal deposits on their platforms, leading to the fund recovery.
Crypto Hackers Linked To North Korea Caught
The notorious group known as Lazarus from North Korea recently attempted a crypto hack on Harmony’s Horizon Bridge, exploiting $100 million in crypto assets on June 22nd, 2022. However, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic was able to trace and recover a fraction of the stolen funds after notifying Binance and Huobi of illegal deposits on their platforms. As a result, over $1.4 million in crypto tokens were seized from accounts linked to the hackers.
Harmony Exploit Overview
The Harmony bridge facilitates token transfers between Harmony and three large networks: Ethereum, Bitcoin and Binance Chain. On 7:08 am – 7:26 am of June 22nd 2020, Lazarus took advantage of this system and managed to steal millions of dollars worth in various tokens via 11 transactions before sending them to another wallet on Uniswap decentralized exchange for trading Ethers instead.
Elliptic Gains Lead On Stolen Funds
After investigations conducted by US Federal Bureau of Intelligence tracked the exploit back to the North Korean Lazarus Group, Elliptic was able to locate where the dormant funds were being stored until recently when they began being funneled through complex transaction chains into several exchanges. By tracing these illicit activities with blockchain analytics tools, Elliptic was able to gain insight into where part of these funds were located — prompting Binance and Huobi’s involvement in freezing accounts believed to be connected with the theft ring.
Binance & Huobi Seize Crypto Funds
In response to Elliptic’s lead regarding possible stolen cryptocurrency deposited onto their respective exchanges , both Binance & Huobi worked together in order to freeze these accounts containing around $1.4 million worth of crypto tokens — effectively halting any further movement or usage of these funds until further notice while also protecting other users from being scammed or exploited as well .