| Hackers made away with almost $1.5 billion in tokens from the Bybit exchange, the biggest theft in the history crypto. So what exactly are they going to do with it? The answer isn't as simple as it once was. The crypto market of today is far removed from its early years, when know-your-customer requirements were rare. Now, most crypto exchanges have established compliance teams and closely monitor criminal activity on the blockchain. Venture capital-backed blockchain intelligence firms like Chainalysis work with global law enforcement to track and seize criminal proceeds in crypto. There are also grassroots groups like SEAL 911 constantly analyzing blockchain data, including tracking the flow of funds stolen by hackers. So how will these hackers — suspected by analysts to be North Korea's Lazarus Group — launder the funds without getting caught? Blockchain sleuths say they have found some answers. ZachXBT, a pseudonymous investigator, disclosed on Telegram that an entity which received stolen funds from the Bybit hackers has launched and traded memecoins on the Pump.Fun platform. ZachXBT also pointed out that the hackers have been using eXch, a centralized crypto mixer, to launder some of the stolen funds. As of Tuesday, the majority of the stolen funds remained in Ether and were being swapped into new wallets, according to blockchain data firm Nansen.  In a normal environment, one might assume that any platforms receiving stolen cryptocurrencies would immediately freeze the funds. Yet this is crypto, after all, so it's more complicated than that. Many decentralized projects are, at least in theory, governed by community members or decentralized autonomous organizations that vote on major changes. For example, Chainflip, a project that allows asset swaps between different blockchains, was only able to move ahead with an upgrade to block the funds from Bybit's hackers after reaching a consensus to prevent illicit flows. Even on centralized platforms controlled by a small group of people, freezing suspected stolen funds isn't an automatic response. Crypto mixer eXch's team decided not to collaborate with Bybit when approached about the alleged stolen tokens flowing through the mixer. The eXch team disputed ZachXBT's analysis, while denying it laundered money for the Lazarus Group. eXch did not reply to a request for comment. To further complicate matters, an individual named Johann from eXch said that the "insignificant" portion of the Bybit tokens that went through the mixer would be "donated to various open-sourced initiatives dedicated to privacy and security both inside and outside crypto space." So eXch essentially said that because the money went to its platform, it has the right to make decisions on what to do with it. And its stance is unlikely to be an isolated case, given how autonomy is at the center of the ethos of the whole industry. | 
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