More than $23 million of the $112.5 million stolen from cryptocurrency exchange HTX in November has been laundered by North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group via the Tornado Cash crypto-mixing service, more than a year after the service was subjected to U.S. sanctions, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
Lazarus, which has since tapped the Sinbad.io and Blender.io crypto-mixing services to launder proceeds from the Atomic Wallet, Axie Infinity, and Horizon Bridge attacks, may have been looking to conceal transactions with the recent use of Tornado Cash, a report from Elliptic revealed. "This change in behavior and return to the use of Tornado Cash likely reflects the limited number of large-scale mixers now operating, thanks to law enforcement takedowns of services such as Sinbad.io and Blender.io," said Elliptic, which also noted that operations of Tornado Cash may have persisted despite the sanctions due to its utilization of decentralized blockchains.
