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Binance and Huobi freeze $1.4M worth of stolen crypto assets

Published date:

February 2, 2026

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In the words of Elliptic CEO Simone Maini, “Today, money laundering was detected and stolen funds linked to North Korea were frozen, in real time.”

Crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi have frozen $1.4M worth of crypto assets stolen by Lazarus, a North Korean hacking group.

The news follows an earlier development when the two exchanges recovered 124 Bitcoin (BTC) from Lazarus.

In June 2022, Lazarus caused one of the largest crypto heists of the year when they exploited the Horizon Bridge. In the aftermath of the attack, the hackers escaped with over $100M in Ethereum (ETH), BNB (BNB), Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Dai (DAI) tokens.

The group became dormant after using the coin-mixing tool Tornado Cash to launder the stolen funds.

Exchanges @binance and @HuobiGlobal today froze accounts containing $1.4 million stolen by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. This was made possible thanks to intel from Elliptic’s real-time investigations tools and a swift response by the receiving exchanges.https://t.co/f5bVpm8yfH
— elliptic (@elliptic) February 14, 2023

In its blog post, blockchain analysis firm Elliptic claimed that Lazarus attempted to move these assets to exchanges through complicated transactions. Elliptic noted that its investigators managed to track these funds through Tornado Cash.

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Manini added,

“As an industry we have the power and responsibility to prevent digital assets becoming a haven for money launderers and sanctions evaders, and ensure that they are a force for good.”

Elliptic stated that it notified Binance and Huobi about its findings. Subsequently, the exchanges suspended the accounts linked to Lazarus and froze the stolen assets. However, Elliptic has yet to reveal the names of the frozen tokens.

Written by

Ayush Pande

Ayush Pande is a hardware, gaming, and crypto writer based in India. He's a tech enthusiast who's fascinated by the potential of blockchain technology.

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How we reviewed this article

All Bitcompare articles go through a rigorous review process before publication. Learn more about our Editorial Process and Risk Warning.

Ayush Pande

Written by:

Ayush Pande

Writer

As a tech enthusiast who's always on the prowl for the latest developments concerning crypto and hardware, you can find him covering news stories or tinkering with PCs.

About the Author

As a tech enthusiast who's always on the prowl for the latest developments concerning crypto and hardware, you can find him covering news stories or tinkering with PCs.

About the Author

Radica Maneva

Reviewed by:

Radica Maneva

Senior Editor

Radica is a Senior Editor at Bitcompare. She has worked for more than a decade at leading publications as an Editor across various industries, including crypto and finance.

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