Crypto alternate OKX has quickly suspended its decentralized alternate (DEX) aggregator in response to issues over its alleged misuse by the North Korean hacking group Lazarus.
The transfer comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny from European authorities investigating the platform’s position in laundering funds from a significant crypto heist.
In an announcement on March 17, OKX confirmed that it had detected a coordinated effort by Lazarus Group to take advantage of its DeFi companies.
“After consulting with regulators, we made the proactive resolution to quickly droop our DEX aggregator companies. This transfer permits us to implement extra upgrades to stop additional misuse,” the corporate mentioned.
OKX Maintains Pockets Providers Regardless of DEX Suspension
Whereas OKX has not supplied a selected timeline for reinstating the service, the alternate’s helpdesk assured customers that crypto pockets functionalities would stay energetic.
Nevertheless, it famous that new pockets creation can be paused in choose markets through the suspension interval.
On March 11, Bloomberg reported that European monetary regulators have been investigating OKX’s DEX aggregator, OKX Web3, over allegations that it facilitated cash laundering linked to the Bybit hack.
The assault, which resulted in $1.5 billion in stolen funds, allegedly noticed practically $100 million laundered by way of OKX’s Web3 proxy, based on Bybit CEO Ben Zhou.
In response, OKX dismissed the accusations as deceptive, emphasizing its proactive strategy to countering monetary crime.
“Over the previous few days, we’ve confronted focused media assaults questioning our integrity and operations,” the corporate said in a weblog submit.
“We are able to’t ignore the truth that these assaults are taking place at a time once we are actively combating towards monetary crime.”
OKX clarified that when Bybit was hacked, it took speedy motion by freezing associated funds coming into its centralized alternate (CEX) and growing new safety measures to stop comparable incidents.
The agency additionally criticized media stories for inaccurately figuring out its DEX aggregator because the origin of illicit trades relatively than merely a liquidity entry level.
We’re quickly pausing our DEX aggregator to deal with incomplete tagging on blockchain explorers whereas we additionally roll out new security measures. That is to deal with the latest coordinated assaults by media together with unsuccessful efforts by Lazarus group to misuse our DeFi… pic.twitter.com/r6oHNIaalT
— OKX (@okx) March 17, 2025
Enhanced Safety Measures to Fight Misuse
To deal with regulatory issues and strengthen its defenses, OKX has rolled out enhanced safety protocols.
These embody a hacker tackle detection system to trace and block malicious addresses in real-time on its CEX and a system to make sure that blockchain explorers accurately determine the precise DEX processing transactions.
“We already rolled out a variety of controls for OKX Web3 to fight misuse, together with prohibited market IP blocking and real-time black tackle detection,” mentioned OKX CEO Star Xu on March 17.
OKX additionally reaffirmed that its Web3 DEX aggregator doesn’t act as a custodian of person belongings.
As an alternative, its major perform is to supply entry to liquidity throughout a number of protocols.
“Some have intentionally misrepresented our platform,” the corporate said, defending its position within the DeFi area.
As reported, Chainflip, a cross-chain DEX, is getting ready a protocol improve aimed toward stopping hackers liable for the latest $1.4 billion Bybit hack from utilizing its platform to launder stolen belongings.
The upcoming 1.7.10 improve introduces enhanced screening instruments that enable dealer operators—together with platforms like SwapKit and the Rango DEX aggregator—to reject suspicious deposits of ETH and ERC-20 tokens.
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