Elliptic: hackers behind the $6.3B Binance heist created at least six memecoins on the NEAR blockchain network to launder about $430,000 of stolen funds

The cost to launder crypto using disposable meme coins on NEAR has fallen to under $100 per token.

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has reported that hackers, believed to be linked to North Korea and responsible for the $6.3 billion Binance heist, have created at least six disposable meme coins on the NEAR blockchain network. These meme coins were used to launder approximately $430,000 of the stolen funds between November 5th and 7th. The launderers launched these tokens, each costing around $90 to create, and paired them with NEAR in liquidity pools on decentralized exchanges. This setup creates a buffer, obscuring direct links between the wallets sending the stolen funds and those receiving them. The tokens, featuring cartoonish artwork, saw minimal trading activity primarily driven by the launderers themselves. In several instances, the wallet funding a new token's creator had just dumped a previous token, suggesting a chain of fund movement to finance successive creations. The tactic of using self-created, short-lived tokens for laundering was previously observed following a major hack of Bybit.

This tactic represents a low-cost, on-chain obfuscation method that, while not making funds fully untraceable, significantly slows down investigative efforts. The cheap barrier to entry for creating these tokens suggests this could become a more prevalent technique for illicit actors looking to move stolen cryptocurrency. Compliance teams are advised to be wary of newly launched tokens with minimal trading volume and concentrated wallet activity, as these can be indicative of laundering operations.

The development impacts how blockchain analytics firms and cryptocurrency exchanges approach transaction monitoring. It highlights the need for more sophisticated detection methods that can identify patterns of token creation and liquidity pool manipulation, rather than solely relying on direct wallet-to-wallet transfers. The continued evolution of these laundering techniques underscores the cat-and-mouse game between malicious actors and those tasked with securing the digital asset ecosystem.