Stablecoin issuers freeze $5 million worth of stablecoins tied to Lazarus Group by ZachXBT
Quick Take Four stablecoin issuers—Paxos, Tether, Techteryx, and Circle—have frozen nearly $5 million in stablecoins in two wallet addresses tied to the infamous North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus hacking group after an investigation by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT. ZachXBT also took aim at Circle for taking longer than the other issuers to freeze the tokens, a total of 4.5 months.
Crypto's most infamous hacking group has lost access to nearly $5 million worth of stablecoins stored in two wallets after stablecoin issuers freezed the funds, which were identified and traced in an investigation led by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT.
In his initial investigation , which was aided by employees from Metamask, Binance, TRM Labs, and Five I's LLC, ZachXBT found that North Korea's state-sponsored Lazarus Group laundered over $200 million in crypto into fiat over a three-year period. The funds were stolen in 25 separate exploits on numerous different blockchains, after which the hackers used a number of accounts at peer-to-peer marketplaces in order to cash out the funds.
The investigation led the issuers behind the stablecoins USDT (Tether), USDC (Circle), TUSD (Techteryx), and BUSD (Paxos) to freeze nearly $5 million in stablecoins belonging to two wallets. The two wallets contain an additional $720,000 worth of the DAI stablecoin and about $313,000 worth of Ethereum, each of which has not been frozen.
"As of today all four stablecoin issuers (Paxos, Tether, Techteryx, Circle) have now blacklisted the two addresses below with $4.96M from Lazarus Group. Another $1.65M is frozen at various exchanges bringing the total frozen from my investigation to $6.98M," ZachXBT wrote on X .
In posts on X, ZachXBT took specific aim at Circle, the issuer of USDC, for taking longer than the other stablecoin issuers to freeze the tokens. "Took Circle 4.5 months longer than the others but at least everything is frozen now," one post reads . "[Circle has] 1000+ employees yet no incident response team who blocks after a DeFi or Lazarus Group hack / exploit to safeguard the ecosystem," ZachXBT said in another .
Circle was unable to be immediately reached by The Block for comment.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
Gold drops to four-week low, below $4,300 as USD firms amid Fed hike bets and Iran risks
Apple’s Leadership Transition “Price” Settled: Ternus Takes 75% Equity as a Bet on the S&P 500, Cook Stays On with a Pay Cut to Ensure a Smooth Transition
Apple's new CEO John Ternus has a target total compensation of approximately $58 million for the 2027 fiscal year, with as much as $55 million in equity awards, 75% of which are directly tied to the performance of the S&P 500 index. Tim Cook, who will assume the role of executive chairman, has a target total compensation of about $47 million under his new pay package, with $45 million in equity awards, half of which are linked to overall market performance.
Solana breaks falling wedge, targets $400 as ETF holdings top $1 billion
Reserve Bank of New Zealand Raises Rates Twice in a Row, Global Central Banks Enter "Data-Dependent Tightening"! "Higher for Longer" Returns as Main Market Pricing Theme
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has raised its key interest rate for the second consecutive time, aiming to shift towards a less stimulative policy environment to curb inflationary pressures. As widely expected by the market, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced in Wellington on Wednesday that the Official Cash Rate would be increased by 0.25 percentage points to 2.75%. The Reserve Bank's latest forecast indicates that another 0.25 percentage point rate hike is likely before the end of this year.
Crypto prices
More
