The theft of 342,000 ETH from the Upbit exchange in 2019 has been linked to North Korea, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. This was reported by The Block.

This is the first time authorities have connected the crime to the neighboring country.

“We came to this conclusion based on a thorough analysis of evidence, including IP addresses, virtual asset flows, terminology, and data provided by the FBI,” the statement reads.

Specific details have not been disclosed.

The agency confirmed that Upbit was the victim of the attack.

In 2019, the stolen ETH was valued at around $41.5 million, but it is now worth over $1 billion.

The hackers converted approximately 57% of the stolen ETH into Bitcoin at a 2.5% discount on three cryptocurrency exchanges. The remaining funds were withdrawn in fiat through 51 platforms.

South Korean police and Swiss authorities returned 4.8 BTC of the stolen assets to Upbit.

In December 2017, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported that they suspected North Korean hackers of attacking Bithumb, resulting in the theft of 7.6 billion KRW ($6.9 million).

It is worth noting that Upbit faced 159,061 hacking attempts in the first half of 2023.

In November, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission’s financial intelligence unit identified at least 500,000 to 600,000 potential violations of KYC procedures on the platform.

Earlier, Cryptol reported that the North Korean-linked Lazarus Group created a fake investor to attack the DeFi segment.