According to the U.S. Treasury and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the recent Ronin bridge hack may have been tied to the North Korean hacker syndicate called Lazarus Group. Federal law enforcement officials have tied the flagged ethereum address connected with the Ronin bridge exploit to the group of hackers and added the crypto address to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals And Blocked Persons list (SDN).
Ronin Bridge Exploiter address added to OFAC SDN list
On April 14, the US government released an updated OFAC SDN list that includes the Ethereum (ETH) address involved in the recent Ronin Bridge exploit. Bitcoin.com News reported on the Ronin Bridge attack on March 29, after the protocol associated with blockchain game Axie Infinity lost $620 million in crypto assets. The Ronin Bridge attack was one of the biggest decentralized finance (defi) exploits of 2022 to date.
According to the U.S. Treasury and OFAC, the ethereum address, which is already flagged on blockchain explorers under the name “Ronin bridge exploiters,” belongs to the North Korean hacker syndicate called Lazarus Group. The ethereum wallet holds 144,837.79 ether worth roughly $438.6 million using today’s ether exchange rates. The newly updated SDN list explains that Lazarus Group has various names including the “Guardians of Peace,” “Hidden Cobra,” “Red Dot,” “Temp.Hermit,” and the “New Romantic Cyber Army Team.”
Transactions with all crypto addresses listed on SDN are prohibited by the US government
OFAC has warned the public against the Lazarus Group in the past because US authorities believe hackers have been involved in major crypto hacks and ransomware threats. There have also been numerous research studies that investigate the alleged activities of the North Korean hacking group. Thursday’s US Treasury and OFAC update notes that the pirate syndicate is believed to be located in the Potonggang district of Pyongyang, North Korea. Transactions with the Ethereum address specified by OFAC are prohibited for US persons and financial institutions.
According to a report published by the United Nations (UN) in March 2019, North Korea and the country’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un allegedly stockpiled at least $670 million worth of cryptocurrencies. On July 24, 2020, the U.S. Army published an investigative report that alleged North Korea has roughly 6,000 cyber hackers including the notorious Lazarus Group.
