US court backs Bybit’s bid to trace funds from $1.5B North Korea hack

A federal judge in the United States has granted Bybit's request for expedited discovery in a lawsuit against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau, the Lazarus Group, and 20 unidentified defendants. The discovery authority allows the crypto exchange to seek account identities, balances, and transaction histories from platforms with US operations.

Bybit alleges that some traceable assets from the $1.5 billion North Korea-linked hack reached exchanges operating in the US, and it sought to identify alleged intermediaries to pursue a portion of the stolen assets. The court has also granted a temporary restraining order on the unidentified defendants to prevent the transfer of certain traceable assets.

As of the June 18 filing, Bybit stated that 90.2% of the stolen assets had become untraceable, with the remaining 9.8% traced to identifiable wallets, including $75.5 million that had been frozen or recovered.

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