Elliptic reported the transfer of stolen Atomic Wallet funds to Garantex.

Elliptic reported the transfer of stolen Atomic Wallet funds to Garantex.

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Author: Robert Strickland (crypto-journalist)
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Elliptic reported the transfer of stolen Atomic Wallet funds to Garantex. Elliptic analysts identified transfers of funds stolen from Atomic Wallet to Garantex Analysts believe that the hackers are related to the North Korean group Lazarus Group

Hackers of Atomic Wallet transfer stolen funds through the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, experts of the cybersecurity company Elliptic found out. Several exchanges have frozen addresses related to the incident, but the stolen assets were directed to a platform that was included in the sanction lists of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury (OFAC) last year.

In early June, funds of users were stolen from the centralized service of cryptocurrency wallets Atomic Wallet in the amount of about $35 million. Among them were bitcoins (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), BNB coin (BNB), and Polygon (MATIC).

Earlier, Elliptic reported that the hacker of Atomic Wallet used the Sinbad.io crypto mixer to launder the stolen funds. Analysts emphasized that this service is popular with hackers from Lazarus Group from North Korea, and on this basis, they believe that the incident is related to the DPRK.

Now Elliptic has clarified that first the stolen assets were exchanged through an intra-network tool from the 1inch project, then transferred to the Garantex exchange, where they were exchanged for bitcoins and redirected to the Sinbad crypto mixer.

Elliptic noted that thanks to the active actions of the company, many crypto platforms have blocked addresses related to the hacking of Atomic. “Lazarus has now turned to the OFAC-sanctioned exchange Garantex to exchange their assets for BTC,” analysts said in a statement.

OFAC imposed sanctions on Garantex in April 2022 along with the darknet marketplace “Hydra”. OFAC stated that the exchange “knowingly ignores obligations” to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.

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