Key Takeaways:
- Losses from the Atomic Wallet hack total more than $100 million, revealed a report by Elliptical.
- AWC price has shrunk by nearly 50% in June
PATNA (CoinChapter.com) — According to a report by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the exploit on the decentralized crypto wallet Atomic Wallet has led to users losing over $100 million.
Elliptic stated that in the course of its investigation, the firm tracked over 5,500 that it believed were a target of the June 2 exploit. Moreover, the analytics firm said it had been working with investigators and exchanges globally to trace and recover the stolen funds.
Elliptic’s efforts have resulted in authorities freezing over $1 million of the stolen funds. Furthermore, the blockchain analytics firm alleged that the North Korean hacking collective, the Lazarus Group, was responsible for the attack.
The firm stated it based its allegations on multiple factors. For example, the Atomic Wallet hackers laundered the stolen crypto assets in a manner identical to those that the Lazarus Group used in previous attacks.
Additionally, the culprits used the Sinbad mixer, a laundering service that the Lazarus Group has favored in the past. These observations, and others, led Elliptic to point out the Lazarus Group as the culprit “with a high level of confidence.“
Moreover, after Elliptic froze the hackers’ funds, the culprits changed tactics and turned to the Russia-based Garantex exchange to launder their stolen cryptos. The US Treasury Department sanctioned the exchange in April 2022 for laundering ransomware and disregarding the AFL/CFT laws.
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Atomic Wallet is yet to ascertain the weakness that the hackers exploited.
AWC Token Price Plummets In June
Atomic Wallet Coin, the native token of the Atomic Wallet, saw its price crash nearly 32% following news of the exploit. Since then, AWC prices have been moving downward. The token has dropped over 49% from June 2’s high of $0.204.
After the release of the Elliptic report, the Atomic Wallet token price dropped nearly 9% to reach a daily low of $0.101 on June 13, with the downtrend likely to continue.
