$170K of Stolen Ethereum Traced to North Korean Hackers

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has identified an address associated with previous North Korean hacks that received approximately $170,000 worth of Ethereum stolen in the recent $200 million hack of Euler Finance.

The Euler Finance hack is the largest of its kind in 2023. The bad actors managed to pull off a flash loan attack by taking advantage of the lack of collateralization in flash loans to borrow large amounts of funds. This made it possible to manipulate token prices.

Chainalysis has identified two primary on-chain entities involved in the hack: a front-running MEV (Miner Extractable Value) bot and the hacker’s primary personal wallet.

The individual who infiltrated the system was provided with initial financial support by Tornado Cash, a mixer that had been sanctioned, to cover the costs of gas fees and to construct the contracts that were utilized in the attack.

After that, they initiated a flash loan, which made it possible for them to borrow $30 million in DAI from the Aave protocol.

After the hack was complete, the hacker moved some of the funds back to Tornado Cash.

The connection to North Korean hackers was made when Chainalysis discovered that approximately $170,000 worth of Ethereum stolen in the Euler Finance hack was sent to an address previously associated with North Korean hacking activities.

The involvement of North Korean hackers in the Euler Finance hack highlights the growing threat of cybercrime in the DeFi space.

As reported by U.Today, South Korea has imposed its first-ever crypto-related sanctions on North Korea due to the latter’s cryptocurrency crimes.

North Korean hackers were responsible for the majority of crypto hacking activity in 2022, stealing $3.8 billion, with decentralized finance protocols accounting for most of the losses.