WSJ Reports Iran Used North Korean Hack Proceeds to Skirt Sanctions Via CoinEx
Summary
- A report said cryptocurrency stolen by a North Korean hacking group flowed into wallets tied to Iran's central bank and was used for money laundering and sanctions evasion.
- It said wallets linked to Iran moved more than $3.84 billion through CoinEx and conducted direct transactions with accounts tied to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- CoinEx said it operates a transaction-monitoring system and high-risk user screening, has blocked new sign-ups from Iranian IP addresses, and plans an internal probe into funds tied to the Bybit hack.
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Iran's central bank appears to have used cryptocurrency stolen by a North Korean hacking group and laundered the funds through a Chinese-linked exchange, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Citing blockchain analysis, the Journal reported on June 24 that part of the funds stolen in the Bybit hack flowed into digital wallets managed by the Central Bank of Iran.
The funds were traced to about $1.5 billion of cryptocurrency stolen from Bybit by a North Korean hacking group, according to the report. The assets then moved through multiple transactions to CoinEx, a Chinese-linked crypto exchange, and may have been used to bypass US economic sanctions on Iran.
Blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs estimated that wallets linked to Iran have moved more than $3.84 billion through CoinEx since 2019. It also found that CoinEx wallets had directly transacted with accounts tied to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
CoinEx was founded in 2017 by Haipo Yang, a former Tencent engineer, and is now headquartered in Seychelles.
Yang told the Journal that CoinEx has been widely used by Iranian users, but added that the exchange has no ties to the Iranian government.
He said CoinEx runs a transaction-monitoring system and screens high-risk users. The exchange also began blocking new sign-ups from Iranian IP addresses this month as part of efforts to distance itself from the Iranian market.
CoinEx said it plans to conduct an internal investigation into transactions linked to the Bybit hack proceeds.
