The FBI has seized $1.7 million worth of cryptocurrencies, including significant amounts of Ether and stablecoins, from March to July of this year, primarily from hardware wallets and Binance accounts.
The hacker who stole $570 million from Binance last year had a portion of their stolen funds liquidated after the Venus community voted in favor of a governance proposal enabling the liquidation, and the attacker's position was manually liquidated for $52.3 million when the price of Binance Coin dropped.
Two significant Bitcoin transfers have sparked speculation within the crypto community, as they coincide with the recent FBI warning about funds associated with North Korean hacker groups, Lazarus Group and APT38, being on the move, raising concerns of a potential sell-off and decline in Bitcoin's value.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) lost over $55,000 in seized cryptocurrency to a common scam after falling victim to a crypto address spoofing attack. The scammer was able to trick the DEA by airdropping a fake address that resembled the real one used by the United States Marshals Service, resulting in the agency mistakenly sending the funds to the scammer's account. The scammer then converted the funds into ether and moved them to a new wallet, with over $425,000 received since June, and over $300,000 of that amount being moved in the last three weeks. The FBI is leading the investigation into the theft.
A Hong Kong crypto exchange, HashKey, will begin retail trading on August 28, allowing residents to invest up to 30% of their net worth into cryptocurrencies with a warning if the limit is exceeded; meanwhile, China is cracking down on private blockchain firms, arresting crypto executives and seizing assets, and the FBI has traced down $41 million in Bitcoin stolen by North Korean hackers from various projects.
The FBI has flagged six Bitcoin wallets linked to North Korean hacking group Lazarus, containing 1,580 BTC worth $40 million believed to be hoarded from various cryptocurrency hacks, and warned crypto companies to be vigilant and track any movement of funds from these wallets.
A hacker group, suspected to be Lazarus with ties to the North Korean government, stole $37.3 million in cryptocurrency from Estonia's CoinsPaid after tricking an engineer with a fake job offer.
Bitcoin pulled back from its all-time high above $28,000 as investors analyzed the implications of Grayscale's court victory against the SEC, with the cryptocurrency dropping 2% to $27,240, while Ether decreased 1.7% to just above $1,700, leading to a decline in the broader crypto market.
Blockchain YouTuber Ivan Bianco lost nearly $60,000 worth of cryptocurrency and NFTs after accidentally revealing his seed phrases during a livestream, leading to unknown individuals stealing his funds.
Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto assets have been liquidated as Bitcoin's price falls below $26,000, with the majority of the liquidations coming from exchanges such as OKX, Binance, and ByBit.
North Korea-linked hackers have stolen over $200 million worth of cryptocurrency this year, accounting for more than 20% of all stolen crypto, in order to fund the regime's nuclear weapons programs, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.
The FBI has determined that the $41 million hack of crypto gambling site Stake was carried out by North Korean hackers Lazarus Group, who have stolen over $200 million in cryptocurrency this year.
Hackers behind the $41 million hack of cryptocurrency casino Stake have moved an additional $328,000 million worth of Polygon and BNB tokens to the Avalanche blockchain, bringing the total transferred funds to $4.8 million, representing 1.2% of the total stolen amount.
Notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus, which has been increasingly active, is responsible for five major crypto hacks in the past three months, including the recent $54 million hack of global cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx, bringing their total theft to almost $240 million in just 104 days, according to a report by blockchain surveillance firm Elliptic.
Hackers from North Korea are using Russian crypto exchanges known for money laundering to transfer stolen digital assets, according to market intelligence firm Chainalysis. The firm's on-chain data reveals that hacking groups linked to North Korea are increasingly using Russian exchanges to launder funds stolen from decentralized app project Harmony (ONE), with evidence showing that DPRK entities have been using Russian services for money laundering since 2021.
According to a report, the value of illicit foreign exchange transactions conducted with digital currency in South Korea was estimated to be $4 billion last year, prompting regulators to focus on the unregulated over-the-counter (OTC) crypto market.
A cryptocurrency holder has lost $4.46 million in a phishing scam after funds were withdrawn from a Kraken exchange wallet and sent to a scammer's address, with scammers stealing around $337.1 million in total through similar attacks.
Hong Kong police are investigating allegations of fraud against cryptocurrency trading platform JPEX after investors complained of HK$1.3bn ($166m; £134m) in losses, with eleven people, including popular influencers, being arrested in what could be one of Hong Kong's biggest fraud cases as the city positions itself as a global hub for virtual assets.
