Norwegian Authority Arrests Perpetrators Of Violation Of The Largest Crypto And Recovered Rp89.7 Billion

JAKARTA - The Norwegian National Authority for Economic and Environmental Crime Investigation and Prosecution (Jokokrim) has arrested the biggest cryptocurrency theft perpetrator linked to the hacking of Axie Infinity in March 2022. In its action, hackers managed to break into more than 60 million kroners in the form of cryptocurrencies in Axie-saka, which is the largest hack in Axie Infinity to date.

Through a collaboration with the FBI, Bangkokrim managed to identify and arrest the perpetrators linked to the North Korean hacker group, Lazarus. In addition to successfully returning the money worth 5.9 million US dollars (equivalent to Rp. 89.7 billion), these arrests also increased the value of AXS and RON tokens by 8 percent and 10 percent respectively.

The theft occurred in March 2022, when hackers looted Ronin Network, Axie Infinity's host network. They managed to break into a network to steal $625 million worth of crypto assets, including 174,000 ETH and 26 million USDC. In the action, the perpetrators found a backdoor through Ronin's gas-free RPC node to abuse Axie DAO validators. The FBI reports that Lazarus and other North Korean exploiters have stolen $1 billion worth of crypto assets since 2017.

The FBI confirmed that the Lazarus Group, APT38, a cyber actor linked to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, was responsible for the theft of a virtual currency worth US$100 million (Rp1.5 trillion) from the Harmony's Horizon bridge, reported on June 24, 2022, "wrote the FBI announcement (@FBI) January 24, 2023.

The perpetrators of Axie Infinity's theft plan to cover stolen assets through Tornado Cash, a privacy mixer approved by the US Treasury Department. They want to start a large-scale money laundering operation. However, the kikokrim and the FBI have been actively investigating and tracking stolen assets, so money laundering players cannot use them for other crimes.

The kokrim alleges that the stolen assets will fund North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Therefore, tracking assets and preventing exploits from investing in mass weapons is very important. happened Bender, Senior Prosecutor at the Bangkokrim, said it was important to track down cryptocurrencies and try to stop the money when the perpetrators tried to withdraw it in physical form.

"This is money that can support North Korea and its nuclear weapons program. Therefore, it is important to track down cryptocurrencies and try to stop the money when they try to withdraw it in physical form," said

The kikokrim will continue to monitor hackers' money laundering operations and will try to stop the stolen assets from being whitened into ordinary currencies. However, the economic crime unit has not been connected to Sky Mavis, developer Axie Infinity, to return the stolen cryptocurrencies to the victims. The hacking of Axie Infinity shows how vulnerable crypto assets are to hacking, and that cooperation between different countries and law enforcement authorities is essential to address this issue.