South Korea links major crypto heist to North Korea, recovers Bitcoin
South Korean authorities recovered 4.8 Bitcoin linked to the 2019 Upbit exchange hack, where North Korean hackers stole 342,000 Ethereum, valued at $41.4 million in 2019 and now worth over $1 billion. The National Police Agency confirmed the involvement of North Korean hacker groups Lazarus and Andariel, responsible for over $3 billion in cryptocurrency theft from 2017 to 2023. The hackers laundered 57% of the stolen Ethereum into Bitcoin through three North Korea-linked exchanges and 51 global platforms. Investigators traced the Bitcoin to a Swiss exchange and returned it to Upbit. Upbit is currently under scrutiny from South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit for potential KYC violations and has been flagged by the Financial Services Commission for its market dominance, accounting for nearly 20% of deposits in K Bank. Upbit is the largest crypto trading platform in South Korea, with a trading volume of around $6 billion.
