Binance Recovers $5.8M Linked to Axie Infinity Hack
The funds were spread over 86 accounts, Binance’s founder confirmed.
Apr 22, 2022 at 6:45 a.m. UTCUpdated May 11, 2023 at 6:48 p.m. UTC
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Crypto exchange Binance has recovered $5.8 million worth of stolen funds originating from last month’s unprecedented Axie Infinity exploit.
- The funds were distributed over some 86 accounts, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet on Friday. “The DPRK hacking group started to move their Axie Infinity stolen funds today. Part of it made to Binance, spread across over 86 accounts. $5.8M has been recovered,” he said.
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- The $625 million exploit, one of the largest in the crypto industry, was tied by U.S. security officials to North Korea’s “Lazarus” hacker group, as reported.
- Ronin Network, the creators of the Axie Infinity bridge that saw the exploit, said in a blog post that the FBI had linked Lazarus with the validator breach and that the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the funds.
- The exploiters have previously used the privacy tool Tornado Cash to convert stolen funds to ether and other cryptocurrencies, as reported.
- Activity over the past week from the exploiter’s main address – tagged Ronin Bridge Exploiter on tracking service Etherscan – shows several thousand ether (ETH) were moved in the past few days. The wallet continues to hold some $285 million worth of the asset at writing time.
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Shaurya is the Deputy Managing Editor for the Data & Tokens team, focusing on decentralized finance, markets, on-chain data, and governance across all major and minor blockchains.