In May, hackers behind the $305 million DMM Bitcoin exchange attack laundered over $35 million in Cambodia in July. Blockchain detective ZachXBT reported on July 10 that the funds were laundered through Huione Guarantee, linked to Cambodia's ruling Hun family.

New Development in Hack Attack

Elliptic reported the market conducted $11 billion in crypto transactions linked to hacks and other crimes. ZachXBT shared the following on X:

“Due to similarities in laundering techniques and off-chain indicators, Lazarus Group is suspected.”

Hackers invest stolen Bitcoin in privacy mixers, withdraw it, and link it to Ethereum or Avalanche via the cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain. ZachXBT said the funds are then converted to USDT and transferred to Tron before being sent to Huione.

However, after stablecoin issuer Tether blacklisted the Tron wallet address TNVaK…s4Ug8 on July 12, the transfer of $28.2 million to Huione was blocked. ZachXBT noted this was the same wallet that obtained about $14 million from the DMM Bitcoin hack.

Details on the Matter

ZachXBT also shared 538 wallet addresses linked to Lazarus Group, Huione, and the DMM Bitcoin hack. Japan-based DMM Bitcoin lost $305 million after a critical security vulnerability was exploited. The vulnerability allowed hackers to access DMM Bitcoin servers, causing an unauthorized leak on May 30.

The crypto exchange raised $320 million about a week later to compensate users' losses. According to blockchain security firm Cyvers, over $1.4 billion in crypto has been stolen in 2024 so far. Centralized exchanges have become the main target for hackers, with losses increasing by 900% in the last 12 months. The team shared the following:

“This quarter saw a significant shift in attack vectors; centralized exchanges (CEX) bore the brunt of major incidents, while decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols showed increased resilience.”