- The $35M obtained from the DMM Bitcoin hack in May was transferred to Huione Guarantee
- The stolen Bitcoins were routed through mixers, then to THORChain and converted to USDT
- Lazarus Group is suspected of being in a hack based on similar hacking and laundering methods and techniques
We recently wrote about the scandal surrounding Huione, its alleged links to organized crime, and the involvement of major political figures. You can read more about that here.
So now they’ve reminded themselves in the investigation into the DMM Bitcoin hack in May, appearing as a place for laundering stolen Bitcoins.
What Exactly Happened?
In May, DMM Bitcoin was hacked after discovering a critical vulnerability. Overall, the platform suffered a loss of $305M.
An important hack likely involved the notorious hacker group Lazarus Group, which stole over $35M of Bitcoins.
The Lazarus Group became suspect because of the strategies they had previously used in their attempt to withdraw and launder this money.
The attackers were able to move the Bitcoins through mixers to cover their tracks, then used THORChain and converted to USDT before withdrawing the funds to Huione Guarantee.
What Are the Results?
Tether blacklisted the Tron wallet address, preventing the transfer of $28.2M to Huione.
And attention on Huione Group as a possibly popular money laundering vehicle has increased dramatically.
As well as the attacks on centralized crypto exchanges; namely, in the last 12 months, losses have increased by 900%.
All of this hurts the reputation of the crypto industry, which has positioned itself as inherently safer and more secure than previous financial systems. It also hurts the reputation of the big players, who actually invest a lot of money in security and compliance.
To gain trust and accelerate the adoption of crypto, the big players need to make security a top priority. Since even crypto is inherently more secure, solutions based on it remain the sum of the technologies, and each has imperfections. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that such attacks become, if not impossible, but so difficult that they lose any commercial interest.
