North Korean Lazarus Group Holds $47M in Cryptocurrencies

New data reveals that the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group possesses a staggering $47 million in cryptocurrencies, the majority of which are Bitcoin.

Wallets associated with the Lazarus Group hold approximately $47 million worth of digital assets, including $42.5 million in BTC, $1.9 million in Ether, $1.1 million in BNB, and an additional $640,000 in stablecoins, primarily Binance USD, according to data compiled on Dune Analytics from 21.co, the parent company of 21Shares.

However, the quantity of cryptocurrency held appears to have decreased from the $86 million the group held on September 6, a few days after Lazarus was implicated in the Stake.com hack.

The Dune dashboard monitors 295 wallets identified as belonging to the hacking group by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Surprisingly, the group does not possess privacy coins like Monero, Dash, or Zcash, which are arguably more difficult to trace.

Lazarus Group crypto holdings. Source: Dune Analytics

In the meantime, Lazarus cryptocurrency accounts remain extremely active, with the most recent transaction recorded on September 20.

Additionally, 21.co noted that the group’s holdings are likely to be significantly higher than reported. “We should note that this is a lower-bound estimation of Lazarus Group’s crypto holdings based on publicly available information,” the report stated.

On September 13, it was reported that Lazarus Group attacked the cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx, causing at least $55 million in damages.

The FBI has also implicated Lazarus in the 2023 breaches of Alphapo, CoinsPaid, and Atomic Wallet, in which the group stole a total of more than $200 million.

However, Chainalysis reported that crypto thefts by North Korea-linked hackers are down a staggering 80% from 2022. By mid-September, groups with ties to North Korea had stolen a total of $340,4 million in cryptocurrency, a decrease from the record $1.65 billion in stolen digital assets in 2022.

U.S. federal authorities issued a “significant risk” warning late last week regarding prospective Lazarus Group attacks on U.S. healthcare and public health sector entities.