Breaking: CoinsPaid, AtomicWallet, and Alphapo Incidents All Connected to North Korea's Lazarus Group
Zach Anderson Jul 26, 2023 14:00
MistTrack links CoinsPaid, AtomicWallet, and Alphapo incidents to North Korea's Lazarus Group. The hacks, totaling over $183M, highlight the need for robust crypto security.
MistTrack, a renowned crypto tracking and compliance platform, has unveiled potential connections between a series of incidents that have stirred the crypto community. These incidents involve CoinsPaid, AtomicWallet, and Alphapo, three major players in the crypto sphere.
On July 26, 2023, MistTrack hinted at the possibility of the notorious Lazarus Group being behind these incidents. The Lazarus Group, also known as Hidden Cobra, is a cybercrime group believed to be based in North Korea. Known for their cyber espionage and cyber warfare tactics, they have been implicated in a number of high-profile attacks, including the 2014 Sony Pictures hack, the 2016 Bangladesh Bank heist, and the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack.
The first incident involves Alphapo, a prominent payment processor for various gambling services. On July 23, 2023, Alphapo reported that their hot wallets had been compromised, resulting in the loss of over $23 million in cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), TRON (TRX), and Bitcoin (BTC). However, recent updates suggest that the total amount stolen is far greater than initially reported, amounting to $60 million.
The second incident involves Atomic Wallet, a noncustodial decentralized wallet, which reported losses of over $100 million due to a security breach. The losses from the Atomic Wallet heist have now skyrocketed to over $100 million, according to an analysis conducted by Elliptic. This alarming figure highlights the severity of the attack, which compromised an estimated 5,500 crypto wallets.
MistTrack's investigation revealed that the address TNMW5iEH7CCudMTGFJA9Ch6KSf6J3hAJem received funds from TJXXmeUbie3JBfK7H3UQb43sWnbhhdTJQx, an address allegedly used by the Atomic Wallet hackers. This information was shared in response to a tweet by ZachXBT, who suggested that the Atomic Wallet hack might have been executed by the Lazarus Group. ZachXBT noted, "seeing lots of similarities in the laundering patterns to Ronin + Harmony."
These findings were further corroborated by @onchainsnoop, who was acknowledged by MistTrack for meticulously unearthing the compelling correlation between these three major incidents. MistTrack extended an invitation to anyone with additional information to direct message or share their findings.
The platform acknowledged the improbability of a full recovery of the stolen funds but emphasized that every clue could help piece together the puzzle and potentially aid in reclaiming a portion of the stolen funds.
Image source: Shutterstock