North Korean hackers likely behind $235 million WazirX exploit: Elliptic

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic says its on-chain analysis suggests hackers affiliated with North Korea conducted today’s high-profile exploit of WazirX , resulting in about $235 million in crypto being stolen.

"On-chain analysis and other information reviewed by Elliptic indicates that this hack was perpetrated by hackers affiliated with North Korea," Elliptic wrote in bold on its official blog.

"Elliptic has added the address associated with the thief to our system, ensuring that our clients will be alerted if they receive any of these funds," it added.

The hack occurred earlier today and was confirmed by the exchange via a post on social media platform X. On-chain data shows more than 200 different cryptoassets were stolen — including ~$96.7 million of Shiba Inu SHIB -9.051% , ~$52.6 million in ether, ~$11 million in Polygon's MATIC and ~$7.6 million on memecoin Pepe PEPE -0.57% .

On-chain analysis also indicates that the exploiters have already conducted swaps for ether using various decentralized services. Furthermore, the stolen funds were transferred to a new address through a transaction funded by Tornado Cash. Elliptic notes that these actions are typical of money laundering efforts and attempts to obfuscate activity, consistent with behavior demonstrated by North Korean hackers in previous incidents.

Centralized exchange deposits have also reportedly been connected after popular blockchain sleuth ZachXBT "submitted definitive evidence of a KYC-linked deposit address used by the exploiter to receive funds from the WazirX WRX -16.72% exploit" to fulfill an Arkham bounty requirement.

North Korean hackers are often to blame for some of the crypto industry's most high-profile exploits. They reportedly laundered nearly $148 million in cryptocurrencies through Tornado Cash in March, and have been known to infiltrate job postings and use social engineering tactics to exploit various projects.