Poloniex Hacker Attempts to Launder Stolen Funds Through Tornado Cash Mixer, Tracing Back to Lazarus Group

Poloniex Hacker Attempts to Launder Stolen Funds Through Tornado Cash Mixer, Tracing Back to Lazarus Group

Last year’s Poloniex hack has taken a new turn as the hacker behind it attempts to launder stolen funds. According to on-chain data from security firm PeckShield, approximately 1,100 ETH, valued at around $3.4 million, has been transferred to the U.S.-sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.

Poloniex suffered a significant loss of $100 million when one of its hot wallets was compromised in November last year. Cybercriminals often use mixing services like Tornado Cash to conceal the origins of stolen cryptocurrency.

The attack is widely attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group, a notorious state-sponsored hacking organization known for previous high-profile attacks, including a $600 million hack on the Ronin sidechain.

In an attempt to recover the stolen funds, Poloniex previously offered the attacker a 5% bounty, totaling approximately $5 million, in exchange for returning the remaining 95%.

Established in 2014 as a centralized exchange, Poloniex was acquired by Tron founder Justin Sun in 2019.

In a separate incident involving Tornado Cash, an attacker associated with a $26 million hack on Kronos Research transferred 200 ETH to the mixer today, as noted by PeckShield.

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It’s worth noting that Kronos Research was also targeted in the November attack last year, although it remains unclear whether the two incidents are directly related.