ZachXBT embedded himself in the group by conducting transactions with a member known as Jimmy Green, initially funding an address with 349.7K USDC. To maintain his cover and build trust, he intentionally lost 5% on each order while gathering data on the syndicate's regional hubs in Hong Kong and mainland China. The targeted intelligence specifically helped recover funds from the $1.5B Bybit hack, confirming that the syndicate laundered the majority of those assets for the DPRK.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
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ZachXBT Infiltrates Chinese Crime Ring Laundering $1B for Lazarus Group
Crypto16 days ago
Assets tied to a February 2025 crypto exploit were frozen after a blockchain analyst went undercover to map out a criminal network in East Asia. Investigator ZachXBT posed as a client to penetrate a Chinese organized crime syndicate that laundered more than $1B across several exploits for the North Korean Lazarus Group. His intelligence led to the identification of a $12M+ cluster of funds moving across BTC, ETH, SOL, and Tron, as well as the discovery of a laundering method using illiquid tokens in Uniswap liquidity pools. Tether subsequently froze 442K USDT linked to the operation.
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