Atomic Wallet Hackers Turn to OFAC-Approved Guarantex: Elliptic

Illegal funds obtained from the $35 million Atomic Wallet hack are on the move again, with approved Russian-based crypto exchange Garantex becoming the latest to be exposed to allegedly hacked crypto.

On June 13, blockchain security and compliance firm Elliptic updated the status regarding the stolen Atomic Wallet funds. It alleges that the North Korean hacking collective, Lazarus Group – which it believes is behind the attack – used the sanctioned Russian-based crypto exchange Garantex to launder the loot.

In a Twitter post, the firm said that there was a significant and successful cross-community effort between Elliptic and several exchange partners to freeze the stolen crypto. However, Lazarus has now found other means of trading its assets for Bitcoin (BTC).

After a significant and successful cross-community effort between @ellipseMany of our exchange partners and friends were stolen @AtomicWallet funds, Lazarus has now turned to OFAC-approved exchange, Garantex, to trade its assets for BTC… pic.twitter.com/5Lk9DeGjr8

– Elliptic Probe (@Elliptic_Inv) June 12, 2023

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) approved Garantex and the Russian Hydra dark web marketplace in April 2022.

Garantex was founded in late 2019 and was originally registered in Estonia, before moving most of its operations to Moscow, the Treasury Department noted those days.

“Analysis of known Garantex transactions shows that over $100 million in transactions are linked to illegal actors and darknet markets,” it added.

Earlier this month, Cointelegraph reported that illegal profits were being broadcast through the Sinbad.io mixer, a service frequently used by Lazarus Group.

Elliptic said that the funds withdrawn by the hackers from Garantex continue to be obfuscated through the Sinbad.io mixer.

The Treasury Department also approved Blender.io (a former iteration of Sinbad.io) in May 2022, warning that the service could be used by North Korea to “support its malicious cyber activities and money-laundering of stolen virtual currency”. was being done to.”

Connected: OFAC Bans OTC Traders Converting Crypto for North Korea’s Lazarus Group

On June 3, several Atomic Wallet user accounts were compromised, resulting in the loss of up to $35 million in digital assets.

Five days later, Atomic said it had engaged blockchain security and analytics firm Chainalysis as the lead incident investigator. Cointelegraph reached out to Chainalysis for an update on the investigation but a spokesperson said they could not comment on the Atomic Wallet case.

The infamous North Korean hacking collective has been linked to several major crypto exploits over the past year, including the Harmony Bridge hack and the Ronin Bridge hack.

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