North Korean Hackers Execute Largest BTC Transaction in Over a Month: Arkham

North Korean hackers, Lazarus Group, has reportedly made its most significant transactions in over a month, pulling out more than $1 million in Bitcoin via a crypto mixer.

Arkham Intelligence reported the movement this morning, with one X user suggesting that the group could be preparing for potential approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Lazarus Group’s Six Transactions Surpass $1 Million

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Arkham Intelligence displayed a screenshot of six transactions totaling around $1.38 million at the time of publication.

However, the majority of that amount, approximately 37 BTC, was executed this morning through three transactions.

“The Lazarus Group just made its biggest transactions in over a month, withdrawing $1M in BTC from what appears to be a mixing service this morning, then sending $150K of that to an inactive address they’ve sent to before.”

Lazarus Group BTC Transactions Over a Week Period. Source: Arkham

Arkham’s observation of $150K being sent to one of their inactive addresses triggered speculation among X users.

They speculated a potential connection to the impending decision by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

ARK 21Shares faces its initial deadline on January 10. Approval could boost optimism in the crypto community, anticipating a positive impact on Bitcoin’s price.

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Lazarus Group Suspected in String of Recent Attacks

Meanwhile, this comes after BeInCrypto reported that Lazarus Group were allegedly responsible for the attack on CoinEx exchange. The attack drained approximately $55 million from the platform. Around a fifth of it was in the Tron native token, TRX.

However, in more recent news, suspicions point to Lazarus Group in the attack on crypto exchange Poloniex, resulting in a hack of approximately $117 million.

Poloniex’s co-founder, Deddy Lavid, added:

“Considering the nature of the attack, likely a private key breach, suspicion falls on the Lazarus group, known for their involvement in similar advanced access control attacks and substantial amounts of stolen funds in recent months.”

Lazarus

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