Despite U.S. sanctions, North Korea’s Lazarus Group has resumed laundering stolen crypto funds through Tornado Cash.
North Korea’s Lazarus Group has resumed using Tornado Cash to launder funds stolen from hacks, despite sanctions against the crypto mixer.
According to on-chain activity flagged by analytics firm Elliptic, hackers from Lazarus Group have transferred cryptocurrency worth $12 million to Tornado’s wallets since March 13. The funds were stolen in November from the crypto exchange HTX and its cross-chain bridge HTX Eco Chain, or HECO.
Hot wallets on the HTX exchange were drained for $30 million during an attack on Nov. 22, while the HECO Chain was hacked for $86.6 million on the same day. The funds were swapped to Ether (ETH) through decentralized exchanges and were dormant until this week.