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The FBI reiterated North Korean involvement, and identified the activity as TraderTraitor.
Feb 27, 2025, 9:30 a.m. UTC
FBI (David Trinks/Unsplash)
What to know:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asked for crypto industry help in tracking and blocking transactions intended to launder the $1.5 billion stolen from Bybit by North Korean hackers.
The FBI published a list of Ethereum addresses that are holding or have held assets from the theft in a public service announcement on Wednesday. The announcement reiterated the country's involvement and labeled it a TraderTraitor activity.
The hack had already been attributed to the North Korea-linked Lazarus group by blockchain analytics firms. The ether and ETH staking tokens were stolen in the largest ever hack of a crypto exchange last week.
The illicit actors are converting some of their stolen assets to bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies "across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains," the PSA said. The FBI said it expects the assets to be laundered further and eventually converted to fiat currency.
Read More: Bybit Declares ‘War on Lazarus’ as It Crowdsources Effort to Freeze Stolen Funds
Jamie Crawley
Jamie joined CoinDesk as a news reporter in February 2021 after writing widely about crypto and blockchain for two years in other roles. Away from crypto, Jamie runs a lot and loves all things sport. He holds small amounts of BTC, ETH, ADA and LTC.
