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Railgun

avoid.net/railgun→40/100·75% conf.
[AI-DRAFTED · AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Auto-generated score, not yet verified against the scoring model. Under review — treat as indicative, not a verdict.

anchored·3sYvsx…eArV

Summary

Railgun is a zero-knowledge (ZK) privacy protocol deployed on Ethereum and multiple EVM-compatible chains that allows users to interact with DeFi applications privately. The protocol gained significant notoriety in January 2023 when the FBI alleged that North Korea's Lazarus Group used it to launder over $60 million stolen from the Harmony Horizon Bridge, though Railgun disputed these claims. The project distinguishes itself from sanctioned mixer Tornado Cash through a compliance feature called Private Proofs of Innocence, has received public endorsements from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, and has accumulated over $4 billion in total transaction volume as of 2025.

Connected Entities

14 entities · 60 linked investigations
Organizations
□Starknet62□Railgun□Polygon54□Ethereum□Inferno Drainer□zkLend□Vitalik Buterin□Arbitrum□Binance□North Korea Lazarus Group — H1 2026 Systematic Crypto Theft Campaign□Harmony Horizon Bridge□Harmony Bridge
Protocols
⌂Uniswap
Tokens
♦Bitcoin
Relationships
  • Harmony Bridge→mentioned with→Bitcoin(75%)
  • Harmony Bridge→mentioned with→Railgun(70%)
  • Harmony Bridge→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
  • Harmony Bridge→mentioned with→Binance(70%)
  • Ethereum→mentioned with→Bitcoin(60%)
  • Starknet→mentioned with→Arbitrum(60%)
  • Starknet→mentioned with→Ethereum(80%)
  • Starknet→mentioned with→Railgun(65%)
  • Starknet→mentioned with→zkLend(70%)
  • Starknet→mentioned with→Bitcoin(60%)
  • + 43 more
Also appears in
Loopring DEX Shutdown (June 2026)·30Polygon·54MangoFarmSOL·2Base·68zkLend·20Harmony Horizon Bridge·4Polygon zkEVM·26DPRK·0Stream Finance·4ZKasino·3+ 50 more

Connected Through

14 shared actors · 549 investigations

Distinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.

Have evidence about Railgun?

Timeline(17 events)

2021

Railgun project founded.

Gate Learn / Messari

July 2021

Railgun open-source code released by a group of mostly doxxed contributors; protocol launches on-chain privacy for Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Polygon.

Railgun Docs / Bitcoin Insider

February 2022

Trail of Bits security audit completed.

Railgun Documentation

24 June 2022

Harmony Horizon Bridge hacked for approximately $100 million by the Lazarus Group (North Korea), according to later FBI confirmation.

FBI Press Release

8 August 2022

U.S. Treasury OFAC sanctions Tornado Cash, driving state-sponsored and other privacy-seeking actors toward alternative protocols including Railgun.

Elliptic Blog

14 September 2022

Zokyo completes smart contract audit of Railgun; finds zero critical issues.

Zokyo Audit Report

13 January 2023

FBI later states that on this date, North Korean cyber actors used Railgun to launder over $60 million worth of ETH (approximately 41,000 ETH) stolen in the Harmony Bridge hack. Binance and Huobi froze associated accounts.

FBI Press Release

24 January 2023

FBI publicly confirms Lazarus Group as responsible for Harmony hack and names Railgun in connection with laundering.

FBI Press Release / CNBC

8 May 2023

Railgun DAO adopts Chainway's 'Proof of Innocence' tool as a compliance mechanism.

CoinDesk

April 2024

MistTrack reports a notable increase in crypto drainer groups using Railgun for money laundering from approximately this date.

Cointelegraph

10 July 2024

Railgun's Private Proofs of Innocence system blocks Inferno Drainer's attempt to launder approximately 174 ETH (~$530,000); funds returned to attacker's original address.

Cointelegraph / CryptoPotato

October 2024

Railgun's all-time shielded transaction volume hits $2 billion milestone.

DL News

November 2024

Fifth Circuit Court rules OFAC's sanctions on Tornado Cash's immutable smart contracts exceeded statutory authority, a legal development potentially relevant to Railgun's sanctions exposure.

Mooloo.net regulatory analysis

12 February 2025

zkLend DeFi protocol exploited for approximately $9.5 million on Starknet. Attacker bridges funds to Ethereum and attempts to wash through Railgun.

The Block / DL News

14 February 2025

Vitalik Buterin publicly praises Railgun for blocking the zkLend attacker's laundering attempt, calling it 'a solid demonstration of Railgun's privacy pools mechanism working in practice.'

The Block

7 November 2025

RAIL token reaches all-time high price of approximately $5.59.

CoinMarketCap

2026

Railgun total all-time transaction volume exceeds $4 billion, with approximately $1.6 billion attributed to 2025 transactions.

DL News
Provenance & Audit Trail
Anchored on SolanaVerify on-chain23 Wayback Archives

Decision Log

This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (3 events). 23 of 25 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.

full audit log →version history →

model: claude-code-investigator

generated: 5/9/2026, 5:43:59 PM

last updated: 7/25/2026, 1:29:11 PM

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