Once again, both Binance and Huobi have frozen accounts that are said to be connected to the $100 million Harmony Horizon bridge attack from last June.
Cryptocurrency valued at over $1.4 million that the trading platforms froze originated from accounts connected to the infamous Lazarus Group operating out of North Korea.
As per the report published by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic on February 14, the company was in charge of the investigation. The coins or tokens that were frozen have yet to be named. Elliptic informed both Binance and Huobi, which then acted promptly to freeze the Lazarus Group-linked accounts.
“The stolen funds remained dormant until recently, when our investigators began to see them funneled through complex chains of transactions, to exchanges. By promptly notifying these platforms about these illicit deposits, they were able to suspend these accounts and freeze funds,” wrote Elliptic.
Since the Harmony attack incident, it is now a known fact that the Lazarus Group has turned to the sanctioned privacy mixer Tornado Cash in an effort to sever the transaction trail linking it to the original heist. However, that effort may be futile as it did nothing to stop the Elliptic investigators from tracking all of the stolen monies passed through the mixer.
Simone Maini, CEO of Elliptic, claimed the incidents demonstrated the industry’s commitment to preventing money laundering and preventing cryptocurrency from turning into a “haven” for illegal behaviour.
