Part of the funds stolen from the Atomic Wallet cryptocurrency wallet ended up on the Russian bitcoin exchange Garantex, which is under US sanctions. This is reported by Elliptic analysts.
After a significant and successful cross-community effort between @ellipticmany of our exchange partners and friends to freeze stolen @AtomicWallet funds, Lazarus have now turned to OFAC-sanctioned Exchange, Garantex, to trade their assets for BTC… pic.twitter.com/5Lk9DeGjr8
— Elliptic Investigations (@Elliptic_Inv) June 12, 2023
According to them, the North Korean group Lazarus Group, allegedly behind the hack, used the platform to transfer assets to bitcoin. Subsequently, funds from Garantex went to the Sinbad.io mixer.
Elliptic added that the hackers have changed the way they launder stolen cryptocurrencies due to the company’s successful efforts to freeze it on other trading platforms.
Founded in 2019, the Garantex exchange was registered in Estonia, but then moved most of its activities to Moscow. April 2022 OFAC sanctioned her for handling more than $100 million in illicit funds.
The Sinbad.io mixer, according to Elliptic, is a new version of the Blender.io service, which also fell under US sanctions in May 2022. In particular, the Lazarus Group used it to launder assets stolen in June 2022 during the hacking of the Horizon cross-chain bridge of the Harmony protocol.
Recall that on June 3, several user accounts of the non-custodial wallet Atomic Wallet were compromised, which led to the loss of digital assets in the amount of up to $35 million.
Subsequently, the stolen funds went through the Sinbad.io mixer.
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