Are Russian hackers behind FTX hack instead of Lazarus?

As the blockchain intelligence company Elliptic has discovered, Russian hackers are likely behind a November FTX hack.

Just hours after FTX collapsed, hackers stole $400 million from the crypto exchange. Now blockchain intelligence company Elliptic has discovered that Russian hackers are likely behind it. This was reported by the crypto news portal Coindesk.

Until now, it was believed that the North Korean "hacker army" Lazarus was behind the attack. There was also talk of insider involvement.

The attackers had left the stolen coins, mainly Ether (ETH), untouched for five days. Then 65,000 ETH worth $100 million were transferred to the Bitcoin blockchain via the RenBridge service. As a result, the attackers reportedly used the cryptomixer ChipMixer to cover their tracks.

Although Elliptic continues to stress that FTX insiders, as well as Lazarus, could be suspects, they think Russian hackers are more likely:

"Of the stolen funds that can be traced through Chipmixer, significant amounts can be linked to Russia-linked criminal groups," Elliptic told Coindesk.

Thanks to the hack, the attacker briefly became an ETH whale and owned more than 228,000 Ether.

Meanwhile, a few days ago, shortly before the start of the case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, portions of the stolen assets were set in motion.

For example, since Sept. 30 of this year 10,000 ETH moved. Much of it was sent from the wallet to ThorChain and the privacy protocol Railgun. Other assets were exchanged for Bitcoin.