North Korean hacker group Lazarus used a meme coin to launder funds stolen from the crypto exchange Bybit.
How Lazarus is pulling it off
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT first revealed Lazarus Group's involvement. They used a wallet to transfer stolen funds across blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana. Funds were split into smaller amounts to make tracking difficult. Eventually, these funds were converted into other cryptocurrencies, complicating recovery efforts.
Not Lazarus’s first rodeo
Lazarus has used similar schemes in the past. Their addresses have initiated other meme coins on the Pump Fun platform, indicating systematic use of this platform for money laundering. Previously, they have also used the eXch mixing platform to process stolen funds.
Community Reaction and Aftermath
Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder, suggested considering a rollback of the Ethereum blockchain to recover the stolen funds, sparking widespread debate in the crypto community. However, many experts deem such a measure unlikely due to the complexity of achieving consensus among Ethereum users and developers.
The recent attack by the Lazarus Group emphasizes the need for enhanced security measures in the crypto space and sparks discussions about the possibility of recovering stolen funds in the future.
