Alex Lab points to Lazarus Group after last month's $4M exploit

Tom Mitchelhill4 hours agoAlex Lab points to Lazarus Group after last month"s $4M exploitAfter being exploited for $4.3 million in May, Alex Lab reveals they have since found “substantial transaction evidence” pointing the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.1331 Total views2 Total sharesListen to article 0:00NewsOwn this piece of crypto historyCollect this article as NFTJoin us on social networksBitcoin layer-2 developer Alex Lab believes the $4 million exploit it suffered in May is most likely linked to the notorious North Korean hacking consortium Lazarus Group. 

In a June 25 post on X, Alex Lab drew attention to three wallet addresses hackers used on May 16 to drain funds from the Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol.

Additionally, the team shared they collaborated with independent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT to compile the evidence required to link Lazarus to the exploit.Source:Alex Lab

On May 16, Alex Lab notified users on X that attackers had exploited its BNB Smart Chain bridge, siphoning off around $4.3 million worth of funds in the process. 

The hackers also exploited around $13.7 million worth of the Stacks (STX) token; however, some of the exploited funds were sent to centralized exchanges and subsequently frozen by the exchanges. 

On June 20, Alex Lab shared the attacker had broadcast more than 11,800 STX transactions, using several DeFi protocols and bridges including Arkadiko, Bitflow and Allbridge to offramp the stolen STX. 

At the time, the team shared the exploit involved hackers gaining access to the team’s private keys. However, the team assured users that the smart contracts of the Alex Protocol itself were never compromised.

Related:Alex Labs rolls out post-exploit recovery plan

The team offered the attackers a 10% bounty for the return of 90% of the stolen funds and promised not to continue legal action if the funds were returned.

The attackers did not respond to Alex Lab’s bounty request.

The price of the Bitcoin layer-2 protocol’s native ALEX token has slumped 10% in the last week and is down 47% over the last month. It is currently trading for $0.07.The price of the ALEX token has fallen nearly 50% in the last month. Source: CoinMarketCap

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