Elliptic says North Korea launders stolen funds via NEAR meme coins

Unchained reported that Elliptic has found North Korea laundering Binance-stolen funds through six disposable meme tokens. According to Elliptic, roughly 117,000 NEAR, worth about $430,000, moved between November 5 and 7. Each token was paired with NEAR in liquidity pools, and the laundering wallets placed nearly all of the buy and sell orders, the firm said.

The firm also described how the creators' wallets chained profits from earlier token launches, and four creators pulled pool funds on November 8. Elliptic says the technique first appeared after the 2025 Bybit hack.

Elliptic's Tom Robinson said the technique slows investigators but does not hide the funds. In the firm's view, the approach makes tracing harder without concealing where money went. The firm advises treating funds that have exited the pools as not clean.

Elliptic also put the unmoved balance at about 11.8 million NEAR, which it valued at $43.7 million. That amount has not moved, the firm said.