In 2023 alone, the infamous cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash laundered more than $800 million worth of cryptocurrency at current exchange rates.
SlowMist analysts spoke about the main villains of 2023. Along with the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, the Tornado Cash service made it to the top.
Tornado Cash Remains Popular Despite Sanctions
According to experts, over the past year, the mixer laundered about 314,740 Ethereum ( ETH ). At the current rate, this number of tokens is estimated at $818.3 million. At the end of 2023, the total amount was approximately $567.2 million. Second place in the ranking of mixers that are popular among criminals was taken by eXch. A total of 47,235 ETH were laundered through it, which is approximately $125 million at current prices.
The US imposed sanctions against Tornado Cash back in 2022. At the time, authorities said the service had laundered $7 billion worth of cryptocurrency since 2019. Since then, the total volume passing through the mixer has dropped by almost 85%, according to a recent report from TRM Labs. In April, a lawsuit was filed with the US Treasury by six individuals with the support of the Coinbase crypto exchange. The authors of the initiative demanded that the government ease sanctions against Tornado Cash. However, in August, the court rejected the request.
Lazarus Hacker Group Shifts Targets
The hacker group Lazarus Group, which the North Korean government supports, changed its direction of activity in 2023, noted SlowMist. Mostly in 2023, hackers laundered huge amounts of money that they stole back in 2022. Among the biggest hacks of the past year, analysts named hacking of Atomic Wallet, Coinspaid, Alphapo, Stake.com, and CoinEx.
According to experts, the attackers stole $308 million in total. It was also previously reported that in 2023, Lazarus’s activities cost the crypto industry more than $300 million. In total, over the past year, crypto projects lost $1.7 billion, according to TRM Labs. It is noteworthy that this is more than two times less than a year earlier when hackers stole $4 billion.
