North Korea’s Lazarus Group has been implicated in the $1.4 billion Bybit hack. Blockchain security firms, including Arkham Intelligence, say all indications point to the group.
In a new post, ZachXBT, an on-chain investigator, suggested that the infamous Lazarus Group might have pulled off the recent Solana memecoin scams.
Lazarus Group is Expanding Crypto Exploits
In a post on Telegram, ZachXBT noted that the entity laundering the stolen Bybit funds might have been behind the memecoin launched on Solana’s Pump.fun.
According to ZachXBT, the attacker received $1.08 million from the Bybit hack to “Ox3639…d7d1,” who proceeded to bridge USDC to Solana. He noted that another address further bridged the stolen funds to Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
The hackers on BSC carefully split the stolen funds into 30 different addresses before consolidating it into a single wallet, “0x0be9ab…b55a3”. It was from this wallet that $106,000 USDC to 10 different BSC addresses before moving the funds back to Solana.
Stolen Funds Laundered Through Solana and Binance Smart Chain
ZachXBT noted that some addresses involved in this stolen crypto laundering have previously interacted with memecoin scammers.
Another indication of his linking the scammers to the Solana memecoin scam was that the person laundering the Bybit hack funds received memecoins for SOL. This development indicates some level of engagement with memecoin activities.
Meanwhile, in a list of over 920 addresses receiving funds linked to the Bybit hack, which ZachXBT made public, the person behind the crypto laundering previously launched memecoin on Pump.fun.
ZachXBT also associated the Lazarus Group-linked wallets with the $29 million Phemex hack in January. These all suggest that the hackers have been actively engaging in malicious activities recently.
Impact of Malicious Actors on Solana
Following the wave of memecoin scams on the Solana blockchain, investors have been skeptical of committing funds to projects linked to the network.
The recent hype and eventual fall of the Libra (LIBRA) token endorsed by Argentine President Javier Milei further dampened sentiments. Over $107 million of liquidity was drained in a rug pull. This led to over 90% price decline after the actors wiped out $4 billion in investor capital.
Analysts say this shows how far-reaching the activities of malicious actors could impact the ecosystem. Solana user activity has also suffered, with active weekly addresses declining from 15.6 million in November 2024 to 9.5 million in February.
The post Bybit Hackers Linked to Solana Memecoin Scams by ZachXBT appeared first on TheCoinrise.com.
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