• FBI confirms $308M Bitcoin theft from DMM Bitcoin by North Korean hackers, linked to Lazarus Group.

  • DMM Bitcoin announced it would shut down operations, transferring customer assets to SBI VC Trade.

On December 23, the FBI, Japan’s National Police Agency, and the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center confirmed that a $308 million cryptocurrency theft from Japan-based crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin has been linked to “TraderTraitor,” a hacking group tied to North Korea’s infamous Lazarus Group.

(Source: FBI ) FBI and Japanese Police Expose DMM Bitcoin Hack

In a joint announcement, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that a hacker posed as a recruiter on LinkedIn and targeted an employee at Ginco Inc., the company responsible for managing DMM Bitcoin’s crypto transactions.

Then the attacker tricked the victim into downloading a malicious Python script disguised as a pre-employment test. Once compromised, the attackers gained access to Ginco’s systems and, later in May, manipulated a legitimate transaction, transferring 4,502.9 Bitcoin—valued at 48.2 billion yen or $308 million—to wallets under their control. Since then the hacker transferred the stolen Bitcoin to 10 different wallets. 

Following the hack, DMM Bitcoin announced earlier in December that it plans to shut down operations. The exchange will transfer all customer assets to SBI VC Trade, a crypto exchange managed by the SBI Group.

However, authorities have labeled this incident as one of the largest crypto hacks in this year. The stolen funds are strongly believed to support North Korea’s regime, with the TraderTraitor group tied to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a military intelligence agency.

Nischal Shetty, co-founder of WazirX—which was hacked in July 2024 and lost $230M—sparked controversy by sharing the FBI’s update on the $308M DMM Bitcoin hack, drawing parallels to WazirX’s own hack. 

Following his post, users from WazirX and the X platform (formerly Twitter) flooded the comments with questions about the future of WazirX and its creditors. In response, Shetty stated, “Creditors will decide that. If the majority vote yes for the scheme, we can proceed with distributing the liquid assets according to the plan.”

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