North Korea Is Minting Its Own Meme Coins to Launder Binance Hack Loot
By Micah Zimmerman
AI summary of the source article
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that North Korean launderers minted custom meme coins to launder funds from the $6.34 billion Binance theft. The technique uses liquidity pools to avoid direct wallet-to-wallet transfers, aiming to slow down investigators.
Why it matters
The meme coins do not hide the funds, but "What they buy is time. Each extra hop slows investigators while launderers race to move funds before they are flagged".
Key facts
- Launderers minted six NEAR blockchain tokens to route roughly 117,000 NEAR ($430,000) through liquidity pools between Nov. 5 and 7.
- The FBI attributed the $6.34 billion Oct. 29 Binance theft to North Korea's TraderTraitor group.
- About $2.85 billion of the original haul has been frozen, while roughly 3,000 BTC ($225 million) has been converted into new bitcoin addresses.
Source excerpt · Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin Magazine North Korea Is Minting Its Own Meme Coins to Launder Binance Hack Loot Elliptic says North Korean launderers created six throwaway meme tokens on NEAR between Nov. 5 and 7, moving about $430,000 of stolen Binance funds through homemade liquidity pools. This post North Korea Is Minting Its Own Meme Coins to Launder Binance Hack Loot first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written…