How Does North Korea Launder Stolen Crypto at Scale?

[nihalsari]

North Korea’s cyber units—most notably the Lazarus Group—launder funds using a multi-layered, cross-chain strategy designed to overwhelm compliance systems.

After hacks (often targeting exchanges or DeFi protocols), stolen assets are rapidly split across thousands of wallets, swapped into different tokens, and bridged across blockchains. This fragmentation makes transaction tracing computationally expensive and time-sensitive.

The funds are then routed through decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and privacy-enhancing tools to remove custodial choke points. Speed is critical: laundering often begins within minutes of a breach to stay ahead of blacklisting efforts.

[bcd8b07f7c]

Crazy that is some team work there