Norway Seizes $5.8M in Crypto from North Korean Hackers

The authorities in Norway have seized a record $5.85 million in cryptocurrencies that were stolen by North Korean hackers, according to a statement released by Norwegian police on Thursday.

Norway Seizes Record Amount of Crypto

Okokrim, the country's national economic crime unit, executed the operation and seized 60 million Norwegian crowns ($5.84 million) worth of cryptocurrencies. It was a record crypto seizure by the country and also "one of the largest seizures of money ever made in Norway."

According to the Norwegian authorities, the seized cryptocurrencies were among $540 million in digital assets siphoned from Ronin Network, the blockchain supporting the popular crypto-based game Axie Infinity, in March 2022. It was one of the largest crypto heists, and the US Treasury Department linked it to the notorious North Korean hackers, Lazarus Group.

"This is money that can be used to finance the North Korean regime and their nuclear weapons program," said Marianne Bender, Norway's senior public prosecutor.

The Norwegian prosecutor is not the first to claim that North Korea utilizes the stolen cryptocurrencies to fund its nuclear program. Earlier, a report published by the United Nations revealed that cyberattacks on cryptocurrency exchanges were used as a main revenue source for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile program.

However, North Korea officially denied all these allegations.

North Korean Hackers Are a Threat to Crypto

Blockchain analytics established the role of the North Korea-linked hackers behind attacks on crypto platforms. Chainalysis, in its reports, blamed North Korea-backed groups for stealing cryptocurrencies from KuCoin and the Japanese platform Liquid.com. Last year, multiple US agencies even raised a joint alarm against threats from North Korean hackers on crypto platforms.

According to an estimate, hackers siphoned at least $3 billion worth of cryptocurrencies from various platforms in 2022. The data was based on the figures until last October but surpassed other years significantly.

1/ After four hacks yesterday, October is now the biggest month in the biggest year ever for hacking activity, with more than half the month still to go. So far this month, $718 million has been stolen from #DeFi protocols across 11 different hacks. pic.twitter.com/emz36f6gpK

The Vietnamese company Sky Mavis developed the blockchain-based game Axie Infinity, which Norwegian entrepreneur Aleksander Larsen founded. Larsen publicly thanked Binance in a tweet for the exchange's assistance to the Norwegian in the seizure.

Norwegian Police @Okokrim just seized $6M from the @Ronin_Network $RON heist.Thanks to @binance @cz_binance for acting fast and freezing the funds!https://t.co/j8V3uD8WMX

"When we learn of bad actors on our platform, we intervene and take appropriate action, including freezing funds and working with law enforcement to return funds to their rightful owner," a Binance spokesperson told the media.

Last November, the US authorities revealed the seizure of over 50,676 Bitcoins stolen from the notorious dark web marketplace, Silk Road, in 2012. The search and seizure operations were conducted in November 2021, when the value of the cryptocurrencies was over $3.36 billion, but has now plummeted significantly. It was the second largest financial seizure by the US authorities following the forfeiture of $3.6 billion in stolen cryptocurrencies linked to the 2016 Bitfinex hack.