Greek authorities carried out the nation’s first-ever crypto seizure after tracing funds linked to the record-breaking $1.4 billion hack of crypto change Bybit earlier this 12 months.
The Hellenic Anti-Cash Laundering Authority issued a freezing order on a suspect pockets following a months-long investigation aided by blockchain analytics agency Chainalysis.
The operation focused funds allegedly stolen in February’s Bybit breach, which has been extensively attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
The Bybit hack, which ranks among the many largest crypto exchange breaches in historical past, noticed attackers exploit vulnerabilities within the platform’s non-public key administration methods to empty roughly $1.4 billion price of Ethereum (ETH).
The stolen funds had been quickly laundered via an intricate net of blockchain transactions designed to obscure their origins, making restoration efforts difficult for world authorities.
The Greek seizure marked a milestone for native regulation enforcement in digital crime prevention. It was made doable by the Authority’s strategic funding in Chainalysis Reactor in 2023, a blockchain tracing platform procured via regional companion Efficiency Applied sciences.
The native expertise supplier additionally supplied analysts with coaching and operational assist forward of the case. Utilizing Reactor, Greek investigators tracked suspicious crypto transactions that finally linked a suspect pockets to the unique Bybit theft.
Officers then froze the belongings, eradicating management from illicit actors and transferring the case to prosecuting authorities for additional authorized motion.
Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Greece’s Minister of Financial system and Finance, hailed the seizure as an indication of contemporary instruments strengthening anti-financial crime efforts.
Analysts mentioned the profitable seizure underlines how blockchain’s public ledger can support world regulation enforcement regardless of refined laundering techniques employed by teams like Lazarus, which has focused crypto exchanges worldwide to fund North Korea’s weapons applications.
Chainalysis described the case as proof that combining expertise, coaching, and worldwide cooperation can erode prison anonymity and bolster belief in digital asset markets.
