North Korean hackers were noted by blockchain experts to have mostly laundered the nearly $1.4 billion worth of Ethereum exfiltrated from the record-breaking heist against major Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit Technology late last month, reports TechCrunch.
Most of the almost 90% of stolen Bybit assets tracked by Chainalysis have already been turned into Bitcoin and spread across about 4,400 addresses, according to Chainalysis Head of National Security Intelligence Andrew Fierman.
On the other hand, TRM Labs Global Head of Policy Ari Redbord said that the initial laundering phase, which involved the obfuscation of the stolen cryptocurrency's origins, has since been followed by the depositing of some Bitcoin into cryptocurrency mixers to complicate investigations surrounding the breach.
Despite such a development, Bybit may still be able to recover some of its pilfered cryptocurrency assets, said Robinson.
"It's likely that at least some of these funds will pass through exchanges, where they could potentially be frozen. It's just a question of whether those exchanges are aware quickly enough that they are handling stolen assets," Robinson added.
