The Harmony attackers try to launder an additional $27 million
As a result of the laundering attempt, the total cashout attempt totals about 91 million out of the stolen $100 million.
The attackers behind the Harmony exploit from June 2022 attempted to cash out another batch of ETH gains late last night.
In the wake of the 41k ETH laundered via TornadoCash and Railgun two weeks ago, worth about 63.5 million at the time, the North Korean Lazarus Group attempted to launder another $27.7 million worth of ETH.
Exchanges intercepted
The attempt, however, was not as successful as the last. Almost all of the ETH that was laundered two weeks ago was cashed out through unnamed exchanges. This time, security teams were reportedly able to freeze the majority of the funds.
It is up to the exchanges to disclose how much of the 17,278 in ETH was frozen.
ZachXBT, a blockchain security researcher, first raised the alarm on Twitter, posting evidence of $17.7 million being transferred through the two mixing tools and onto exchanges.
The original tweet was followed by another address moving $10 million in ETH, bringing the total number of pre-consolidation addresses used to ten.
The status of the funds is unknown
During the previous round of laundering, a significant portion of the Harmony funds were converted to BTC, with an unspecified amount frozen and seized by the FBI.
This time, it seems like a bigger proportion of funds were frozen by crypto exchange security teams. In an effort to restore users to wholeness, they can be sent back to Harmony.
The stolen funds, however, are much more likely to be turned over to the FBI first, potentially allowing their security researchers to gather more information on the notorious North Korean cybercrime syndicate.
The crypto community reacted positively to the news of the interception, with many praising both Zach and the security teams at the unnamed exchanges for keeping watch during the late hours of a weekend night.
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