Following this announcement, the FBI referred to this specific North Korean malicious cyber activity as `TraderTraitor`, as the USD 1.5 billion was in virtual assets from the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.
TraderTraitor actors are currently processing rapidly and have converted some of the stolen assets to Bitcoin, as well as other virtual assets dispersed across multiple addresses on several blockchains. At the same time, it is expected that these assets will be further laundered and eventually converted to fiat currency.
According to the official PSA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) encourages private entities including RPC more operators, exchanges, bridges, blockchain analytics firms, as well as DeFi services and solutions or other virtual asset tool providers in order to block transactions with or derived from addresses TraderTraitor actors are currently leveraging to launder the stolen assets.
At the same time, the FBI will also continue to maintain its commitment to protecting the virtual asset community by identifying, mitigating, and disrupting North Korea’s illicit cybercrime and virtual asset theft activities. The US government has also observed that North Korean cyber actors are targeting a variety of organisations in the blockchain technology and cryptocurrency industry, including cryptocurrency exchanges, decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols, play-to-earn cryptocurrency video games, and cryptocurrency trading companies, as well as venture capital funds investing in cryptocurrency, and individual holders of large amounts of cryptocurrency or valuable non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
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