The FBI has accused North Korean-linked hackers of conducting one of the largest thefts of cryptocurrency publicly known, seizing some $1.5 billion worth of ethereum from a Dubai-based firm.
The theft earlier this month targeting Bybit, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, represents yet another involving a team of hackers identified by the U.S. government by the names TraderTraitor and the Lazarus Group.
The hackers steal cryptocurrency “through the dissemination of cryptocurrency trading applications that were modified to include malware that facilitates theft of cryptocurrency,” the FBI has said.
In an online public service announcement late Wednesday, the FBI said it believed the North Korean-backed hackers were “responsible for the theft.”
“TraderTraitor actors are proceeding rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to Bitcoin and other virtual assets dispersed across thousands of addresses on multiple blockchains,” the FBI said in its announcement. “It is expected these assets will be further laundered and eventually converted to fiat currency.”
North Korean state media has not acknowledged either the theft or the FBI accusation. Pyongyang’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.