North Korean Lazarus Cell Linked to $60 Million Hack

The pseudonymous on-chain investigator, ZachXBT, has pointed to the infamous North Korean hacker group, Lazarus, blaming them for the ongoing hack of Alphapo, now estimated at $60 million.

ZachXBT describes the Lazarus hacker cell as having “a very distinct fingerprint on-chain”. 

This most recent attack would be only the latest in a growing list of cryptocurrency hacks orchestrated by the group, the most high-profile of which occurred in 2022, when more than $600 million worth of cryptocurrency was siphoned from Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge. 

According to Elliptic, Lazarus has stolen more than $2 billion worth of digital assets across attacks on both centralized and decentralized entities.

The Story So Far…

Alphapo is a payments provider, predominantly serving online-gambling and e-commerce companies and websites.

The attack began on July 22 when some $23 million worth of assets were drained across tokens such as USDT, USDC, and ETH.

Reports have since come in, indicating that a further $37 million across the Tron and Bitcoin networks was also stolen by the hacker cell.