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US Government Recovers $30M From Crypto Game Axie Infinity Hack
Hackers stole over $600 million from Axie earlier this year.
Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis announced Thursday it helped the U.S. government recover about $30 million stolen from online video game Axie Infinity earlier this year.
In a blog post, Erin Plante, senior director of investigations at Chainalysis, said law enforcement officials were able to recover the funds, which were stolen by Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking entity tied to multiple crypto thefts over recent years.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
"With the help of law enforcement and leading organizations in the cryptocurrency industry, more than $30 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean-linked hackers has been seized. This marks the first time ever that cryptocurrency stolen by a North Korean hacking group has been seized, and we’re confident it won’t be the last," Plante said.
Hackers stole over $600 million from Axie this past spring, laundering many of the proceeds through privacy mixer Tornado Cash. The U.S. Treasury Department later sanctioned Tornado Cash for facilitating money laundering.
A Treasury Department spokesperson didn't immediately return a request for comment.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Nikhilesh De
Nikhilesh De is CoinDesk's managing editor for global policy and regulation, covering regulators, lawmakers and institutions. When he's not reporting on digital assets and policy, he can be found admiring Amtrak or building LEGO trains. He owns < $50 in BTC and < $20 in ETH. He was named the Association of Cryptocurrency Journalists and Researchers' Journalist of the Year in 2020.
Danny Nelson
Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.
