Atomic Wallet Hacker Sends Stolen Cryptocurrency to North Korea Coin Mixer: Elliptical

Atomic Wallet Hacker Sends Stolen Cryptocurrency to North Korea Coin Mixer: Elliptical

The stolen funds from the Atomic Wallet hack were traced to a coin mixer used to launder crypto assets swiped by North Korea's infamous Lazarus Group. Since June 2, nearly $35 million worth of crypto assets have been confiscated from users of the centralized wallet service.

According to Elliptic's investigative team, the stolen funds are exchanged for Bitcoin before being laundered through "Sinbad.io."

The Sinbad.io mixer was used to launder more than $100 million in exploit proceeds from North Korea's Lazarus group. These include assets from the $540 million Axie Infinity hack as well as the $100 million Horizon Bridge attack.

The blockchain compliance analytics firm said its investigation shows that Sinbad.io is likely a rebranded version of Blender.io, another mixer commonly used to launder Lazarus Group funds. Interestingly, Blender was the first service of its kind linked to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to be sanctioned by the US Treasury Department last May.

Atomic Wallet had previously confirmed that it was conducting security investigations and tracking money movements. However, considering Elliptic's findings, it is unlikely that the wallet service provider will be able to stop the attackers from exchanging funds.

Conflicting claims

In a statement earlier this week, Atomic Wallet said that less than 1% of its monthly active users were affected by the exploit, but the community disputed the claims. While several users have reported loss of tokens and deletion of transaction data, others complained that their entire crypto portfolio was wiped.

The service describes itself as a cold wallet type where all passwords and data are stored on the user's device instead of on a server. Such a system reduces the risks associated with custody or the possibility of losing funds through centralized services. However, the latest exploit highlights the complexity of the vulnerabilities associated with cold wallet-style storage.

Atomic Wallet said it is working with major exchanges and blockchain analytics to track down and block the stolen funds, but has not indicated whether law enforcement has been involved. The platform also failed to determine the root cause of the exploit.

Additionally, details of the compensation plans have not yet been disclosed.

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