Bybit is more than a quarter of the hacked cryptocurrency that cannot be traced

A large portion of North Korea’s $1.4 billion cryptocurrency has become untraceable, according to exchange CEO Ben Zhou.

Exec reports that detailed the current status of hacker funds (approximately 500,000 ETH) report that 27.59% of funds went black, largely due to obfuscation strategies involving crypto-mixers and decentralized services.

Although 68.57% of the funds are still traceable, only 3.84% are frozen.

Encrypted blender, swaps and 36,000 wallets

Zhou noted that the main tool for looting stolen funds was a mustard mixer, followed by additional dispersion through Cryptomixer, Tornado Cash and Railgun. The attackers also leverage decentralized cross-chain switching platforms such as Thorchain, Exch, Lombard, Lifi, Stargate, and Sunswap to transfer assets through blockchains and then convert them to FIAT through peer-to-peer (P2P) and non-site (OTC) exchanges.

Data in Zhou’s report shows that 432,748 ETHs have been converted into Bitcoin through Thorchain. Of these, 342,975 ETH (worth approximately US$960 million) distributed 10,003 BTC in nearly 36,000 wallets to hinder traceability.

Despite extensive monitoring, only a small percentage of stolen assets were left on the Ethereum blockchain, while only 944 BTC (about $90.6 million) was leaked in Wasabi.

The Lazarus Bounty initiative aims to address these vulnerabilities, receiving 5,443 reports in the past two months, with only 70 validations. Zhou emphasized the need for a more bounty hunter, able to uncover the ability of mixer trading, and warned that tracking dark crypto streams would require a lot of collaborative effort.

Lazarus Group alleges withdraw after charges

There are exchanges in the designated platforms in the Washing Trail. The privacy-focused cryptocurrency exchange recently announced plans to cease operations on May 1, after alleging $35 million in money laundering with Bybit Hack in February. The platform denies intentional wrongdoing and dismisses claims of promoting criminal activity.

Amid growing international censorship and its so-called “hostile” environment, the exchange cited “active transatlantic operations” against its closure. With its exit announcement, Exch also said it will launch 50 BTC funds to support privacy-focused encryption tools.