The Infamous Lazarus Group Under Suspicion for Exploiting Alex Labs and Gaining 4M

The identity of the hackers responsible for the $4 million exploit that occurred in May 2024 has finally been revealed. Alex Labs, a layer-2 developer for Bitcoin, has attributed the act to the North Korean Lazarus group. This revelation comes after an extensive investigation into the attack.

The hack took place on May 16 and targeted Alex Labs’ BNB Smart Chain bridge, resulting in the theft of $4.3 million in funds. In addition, $13.7 million worth of the Stacks (STX) token was stolen and laundered through various CEXs.

On June 20, Alex Labs announced that the hackers had broadcasted over 11,800 transactions in staking tokens of STX. Through their collaboration with on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, Alex Labs was able to trace the stolen assets to three wallets. Among these wallets, one address, 0x418e…0c4e, was directly linked to the initial exploitation.

Funds sent from this address were then transferred to another address, 0x63…BeA3, and subsequently withdrawn to a Tron wallet associated with the Lazarus Group. This hacking group, reportedly controlled by North Korea, has a history of targeting cryptocurrency firms.

In response to the attack, Alex Labs has worked alongside the Singapore Police Force and multiple exchange platforms. As a result, the transfer of over $3.9 million worth of STX by the alleged impostors has been frozen.

Alex Labs has emphasized their commitment to transparency and security in a tweet to their community. They continue to collaborate with law enforcement agencies and cyberforensics experts to recover the remaining stolen funds. The DeFi protocol has pledged to provide regular updates and strengthen their security measures to prevent future incidents.

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