Norway seizes USD 5.8 million worth of crypto stolen by North Korea

LONDON, Feb 16 (Reuters) – Norway has seized a record $5.8 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hackers last year, Norwegian police said in a statement on Thursday.

North Korean hackers stole $625 million in March 2022 from a blockchain project related to the crypto-based game Axie Infinity. The robbery was one of the largest of its kind on record, and was linked by the US to a North Korean hacker group called “Lazarus”.

– This is money that can be used to finance the North Korean regime and their nuclear weapons programme, Norway’s senior attorney general Marianne Bender said in a statement.

North Korea has denied accusations of hacking or other cyber attacks.

Norway’s national economic crime unit, known as Okokrim, said it had seized NOK 60 million ($5.84 million) in “one of the largest seizures of money ever made in Norway” and a record amount for a crypto seizure .

Okokrim said it was working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crypto tracking specialists.

Last year was the worst on record for cryptocurrency heists, with hackers stealing as much as $3.8 billion, led by attackers linked to North Korea, according to US-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

Sky Mavis, the company behind Axie Infinity, is based in Vietnam, but the founder, Aleksander Larsen, is Norwegian. Larsen refused to comment, but in a tweet thanked the cryptocurrency exchange Binance for helping the Norwegian police with the seizure.

“When we learn of bad actors on our platform, we intervene and take appropriate measures, including freezing funds and working with law enforcement to return funds to their rightful owner,” a Binance spokesperson said.

North Korea stole more cryptocurrency assets in 2022 than in any other year and targeted the networks of foreign aerospace and defense companies, according to a currently confidential UN report seen by Reuters.

Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft and James Pearson; Editing by Nick Macfie

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