North Korean hackers have been spotted entering the secondary laundering phase for funds stolen from Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis and others stated on local time November 2 that North Korean hackers have begun emptying temporary wallets where the cryptocurrency stolen from Binance was stored and moving it to the Solana network and other platforms.
They are converting about 129 billion won worth of the Solana tokens secured in this way into Bitcoin.
Chainalysis analyzed that "North Korea-linked entities have embarked on a new laundering phase for the funds stolen from Binance."
This means it is the second laundering phase following the initial diversion of the stolen funds into temporary wallets under their control immediately after the hacking.
The hackers are confusing tracking networks by repeating more than 3,000 transfers across over 1,000 wallets.
In particular, in the case of stablecoins or altcoins with separate issuers, there are concerns that assets could be frozen or transactions blocked, so they appear to be ultimately trying to convert them into Bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency.
It is also estimated that they considered the fact that Bitcoin has the highest liquidity, making it advantageous to cash out when converting assets into Bitcoin.
Once the hackers complete this secondary laundering, they are expected to carry out a third phase of breaking the funds into small pieces, converting them into fiat currency such as US dollars, and withdrawing them.
Previously, hackers carried out a hack on Binance on October 29, stealing approximately 8.4 trillion won worth of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
The US FBI officially named "TraderTraitor," an elite hacking organization under North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, as the mastermind behind the hacking incident.
(Reported by Jung Da-eun, Video Editing by Lee Yu-jin, Design by Lee Jung-joo, Produced by SBS Digital News)
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