About $30 Million: North Korean Hackers Laundered Funds Under the Nose of the US Administration
A North Korean hacker group exploited the decentralized structure of the Hyperliquid platform to launder $30 million. The incident occurred amid plans by the Donald Trump administration to tighten oversight of the crypto sector.
The infamous hacker group Lazarus Group, operating under the auspices of the North Korean regime, has managed to launder over $30 million in Bitcoin over the past three weeks, according to blockchain analysis firm Arkham.
The money laundering was carried out through Hyperliquid, a leading decentralized derivatives exchange that allows anonymous trading without the need for Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. These findings are published at a sensitive time, as President Donald Trump recently stated that the administration is working vigorously to regulate the exchange's operations in the United States and bring it under orderly regulatory oversight.
The hackers' method relied on exploiting the advantages of the decentralized exchange. After selling the Bitcoin on the platform, the funds were converted into Ethereum and Solana, and from there flowed to major trading platforms such as Kraken, KuCoin, and LBank. The Kraken exchange emphasized that it uses advanced monitoring tools to block flagged wallets, while other exchanges claimed that tracking cross-platform transactions poses a complex challenge for the entire industry.
Concerns about North Korean involvement in the platform arose as early as December 2024, when security researchers reported suspicious movements that caused massive withdrawals of about $250 million in one day from Hyperliquid. The US Treasury Department, which has been tracking the Lazarus group since 2019, has recently been dealing with a nearly 700% surge in the volume of funds flowing to entities under sanctions.
"These disturbing data points test the administration's intention to regulate decentralized crypto platforms and highlight the constant tension between free financial innovation and national security needs."
As a reminder, last July, the crypto world experienced another shock when the trading platform AFX, operating on the Arbitrum blockchain network, fell victim to a large-scale cyberattack. During that breach, a hacker managed to withdraw and steal USDC coins worth approximately $24 million.
