ZachXBT, a notorious sleuth in the crypto industry, has identified an “eye-opening” level of North Korean participation in the space. He claims that several decentralized protocols owe nearly all their trade volume to the DPRK.
ZachXBT discovered this network while trying to freeze transactions from the recent Bybit hack. He worries that the industry may not be capable of solving the problem, inviting anti-crypto regulations.
Extreme Level of North Korean Money Laundering Through Crypto
ZachXBT recently identified the North Korean Lazarus Group as the perpetrators of the Bybit hack. Although the group successfully laundered the stolen money, ZachXBT has persisted in trying to freeze assets and described an “eye-opening” network of North Korean activity in the DeFi space.
“Several ‘decentralized’ protocols have recently had nearly 100% of their monthly volume/fees from the DPRK. Centralized exchanges end up being worse, as when illicit funds flow through them, a few take multiple hours to respond when it only takes minutes to launder,” ZachXBT claimed via Telegram.
ZachXBT has pursued North Korean hacker activities on many occasions, and previously criticized Circle for its slow response in preventing money laundering.
The Bybit hack, the largest heist in crypto history, has highlighted the epidemic nature of the problem. THORChain and OKX were both criticized for facilitating Lazarus’ Bybit laundering.
Other data suggests that ZachXBT’s concerns about North Korean crypto networks are well-founded. Recent data from Arkham Intelligence suggests that North Korea is now the third-largest national crypto holder, behind the US and UK.
Although on-chain analysis can prove that North Korea has these assets, it’s practically impossible to speculate what exactly the country is doing with them.
The nation has been growing closer to Russia, which openly advocates for using crypto to evade sanctions. However, experts have only been able to speculate what North Korea is buying.
ZachXBT worries that North Korea has exposed how broken the crypto space is. He called KYT “completely flawed and easily evadable,” and said KYC is “just a honeypot for regular users” due to breaches and “useless in the majority of cases.”
Overall, it’s clear that North Korea is deeply embedded in the crypto space. Given the country’s reputation, it’s likely that these large proceeds from the crypto industry directly fund its military.
“This industry is unbelievably cooked when it comes to exploits/hacks. Sadly, I don’t know if the industry is going to fix this itself unless the government forcibly passes regulations that hurt our entire industry,” ZachXBT added.
Hopefully, the crypto community can find its own solutions and avoid harmful regulation and inevitable government overreach.
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