Binance recovers $5.8 million in crypto assets from Axie Infinity hackers linked to Ronin breach

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance has recovered part of the assets stolen by hackers from Axie Infinity, worth $5.8 million, according to CEO Changpeng Zhao.

The DPRK hacking group started to move their Axie Infinity stolen funds today. Part of it made to Binance, spread across over 86 accounts. $5.8M has been recovered. We done this many times for other projects in the past too. Stay #SAFU.

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) April 22, 2022

On March 23, unknown hackers hacked the Ethereum sidechain Ronin and withdrew approximately $625 million in ETH and USDC. The incident came to light six days later, and experts noted that part of the funds had been sent to centralized exchanges.

According to Zhao, the hackers distributed the assets across 86 Binance accounts.

“$5.8 million has been recovered. We have done this many times before for other projects,” he said.

The head of Binance confirmed that the hack was carried out by a North Korean hacking group.

In April, U.S. authorities linked the Ethereum address associated with the stolen funds to the Lazarus group, which is believed to operate on behalf of North Korea.

The Lazarus group was involved in the KuCoin hack worth $280 million in 2021. The total losses to crypto projects from North Korean hacker attacks over the year reached $400 million.