Crypto on-chain analyst ZachXBT tested the credibility of a crypto exchange's Know-Your-Customer process by creating a fake account under the name of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-Un.
What Happened: ZachXBT on Tuesday said he applied for a Gate.io account using a fake name and email address.
"I was able to create an account on Gate.io and KYC as "Kim Jong-Un" with the email "notlazarus" and within minutes I was verified," he tweeted.
The crypto investigator alleged that the fake account of Kim Jong-Un was approved within minutes, and the KYC-1 basic verification level allowed the account holder to withdraw up to 100,000 USDT daily.
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Why It Matters: Even more alarmingly, ZachXBT repeated this process using fake names and email addresses tied to the OFAC sanctions list such as "harmonyhacker" and "lazaruslover" – all of which, as per the analyst were approved.
The Lazarus Group is believed to be a group of hackers and scammers who operate under the guidance of the North Korean government.
It’s not clear whether ZachXBT altered or forged any ID documentation to create the fake account on Gate.io and pass through the KYC process.
Gate.io is a popular crypto exchange that enables crypto trading including Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD.
Gate.io did not respond to Benzinga's request to comment at press time.
Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $27,708, up 0.27% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.
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