OKX suspends DEX aggregator following Lazarus 'misuse' and heightened EU scrutiny

Crypto exchange OKX has "temporarily suspended" its DEX aggregator services, which European regulators allegedly probed after the services were used to launder some of the proceeds from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack.

OKX said in a Monday statement that it "made the proactive decision" to temporarily suspend the services after consulting with regulators. "This move allows us to implement additional upgrades to prevent further misuse," OKX said.

"Recently, we detected a coordinated effort by Lazarus group to misuse our defi services. At the same time, we've noticed an increase in competitive attacks aiming to undermine our work," OKX added.

The exchange's decision follows a report by Bloomberg last week, which indicated that EU regulators were scrutinizing OKX's decentralized trading and self-custody services. The regulators were reportedly questioning whether OKX's DeFi tools were in violation of the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) guidelines.

In a separate X post on Monday, OKX noted that its wallet services will remain available to all customers, but it will pause new wallet creation in select markets.

Last month, Bybit experienced what is viewed as the worst hack of a centralized exchange in the crypto space, attributed to a targeted attack by North Korea's Lazarus Group. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou disclosed that about $100 million worth of stolen assets moved through OKX's web3 proxy.