#Write2Earn A secret plan to hack the blockchain: America seizes millions of dollars in cryptocurrency that funded the North Korean regime

In a dramatic development revealing the escalation of the covert cyber war, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the initiation of procedures to seize over $7.74 million in digital assets believed to have been raised illegally for the benefit of North Korea, through an international network of “technology agents” who infiltrated global blockchain companies with fake identities.

According to the statement issued on June 5, these funds represent the proceeds of fictitious employment and digital money laundering, carried out by North Korean individuals working remotely in tech companies, who are paid in stablecoins like USDC and Tether to conceal their true locations and funnel the proceeds directly to the regime.

The roots of the case date back to April 2023, when these assets were frozen after the accusation of Sim Hyun Sup, the representative of the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank in China, for coordinating the transfer of digital profits to Pyongyang with the help of fake tech labor.

Federal court documents show that those involved used advanced concealment techniques that included transferring through multiple blockchain chains (chain hopping), exchanging cryptocurrencies, creating fake digital identities, along with purchasing NFTs to mislead regulatory authorities.$USDC