Washington: $100 million was stolen last June from US crypto firm Harmony's Horizon Bridge by two hacker groups linked to North Korea, the Lazarus Group and APT38, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday.

According to an FBI statement, the groups used a privacy protocol called Railgun on January 13 to launder more than $60 million in ethereum stolen in June.

The FBI reported that some of the stolen ethereum was later transferred to several companies that deal in virtual assets and converted into bitcoin.

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According to the FBI, North Korea uses the theft and laundering of virtual currency to fund its development of ballistic missiles and WMDs.

California-based Harmony reported in June last year that the underlying software used by digital tokens such as bitcoin and ether to transfer cryptocurrency between different blockchains, Horizon Bridge, had been robbed.

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North Korean hackers were most likely responsible for the attack on Harmony, according to three online research companies cited by Reuters in June.

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Blockchain by Harmony is built for decentralized peer-to-peer lending platforms that provide loans and other services without the use of traditional gatekeepers such as banks and non-fungible tokens.