• Norwegian authorities, in collaboration with the FBI and DOJ, have seized about $6 million from the Axie Infinity heist.
• The attack was perpetrated by North Korean hacker group Lazarus and involved laundering money through Blender.io.
• This is the largest crypto seizure ever made by Norwegian police.
Axie Infinity Heist
Last year, the online video game Axie Infinity suffered an attack which resulted in a reported loss of $620 million. The attacker managed to gain control over Sky Mavis’s four Ronin Validators and a third-party validator run by Axie DAO. It was later determined that North Korean hacker group Lazarus was behind the heist.
Seizure of Stolen Crypto
Norwegian authorities, in collaboration with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), have allegedly seized about $6 million that was stolen in last year’s Axie Infinity heist – the largest crypto seizure ever made by Norwegian police according to Økokrim, Norway’s National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime.
Money Laundering Operation
The hackers began a large-scale and sophisticated money laundering operation immediately after the attack, Økokrim detailed. In May last year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned crypto mixer Blender.io for being used in this process – processing over $20.5 million in illicit proceeds from the heist into various cryptocurrency wallets owned by Lazarus Group members or affiliates around the world.
Collaboration Between Nations
First State Attorney Marianne Bender commented on this international effort against digital crime: „We work with FBI specialists on tracking cryptocurrency,“ she said, „Such cooperation between countries means that we as a society stand stronger in the fight against digital, profit-motivated crime.“
Conclusion
Norway’s success at recovering some funds from Axie Infinity serves as an example for other nations looking to combat cybercrime involving cryptocurrencies – both domestically and across borders when possible through international cooperation efforts like this one between Norway and FBI!