North Korean Hackers’ Suspected Presence Triggers Over $500 Million In Outflows From Crypto Exchange

Decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Hyperliquid HYPE/USD witnessed its biggest-ever single-day outflow on Monday after an investigation sounded alarm over the presence of North Korean hackers on the platform.

What Happened: Tay Monahan, a security expert at cryptocurrency wallet provider MetaMask, disclosed in an X post that hackers with ties to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have been active on the platform since October.

Monahan shared the addresses of the alleged DPRK wallets and their activity on the platform, followed by a cheeky dig at HyperLiquid’s lack of seriousness about the situation.

“Hyperliquid dudes dont seem worried at all though, so im sure its fine,” the security expert said. She stated that North Korean hackers typically trade on platforms to identify potential loopholes.

A HyperLiquid core developer said in a statement to Bloomberg that the team was aware of suspicious activity by DPRK-linked wallets but denied any exploit or loss of user funds.

But the FUD had already spread far and wide by then. Outflows from HyperLiquid hit an all-time high of $502 million on Monday, according to Dune Analytics, as panic-stricken users rushed to move their funds out of the trading platform.

See Also: Dogecoin ‘Parabolic Rally’ In 2025 Foreseen By Popular Analyst If ‘History Repeats’ Just Like In 2017, 2021

Why It Matters: This incident comes amid growing fears over threats posed by cybercriminals allegedly backed by the North Korean government.

Hackers from the “Hermit Kingdom” stole a staggering $1.3 billion in cryptocurrencies in 2024, accounting for more than half of their total $2.2 billion in global thefts.

Significant incidents this year included the theft of $300 million in Bitcoin BTC/USD from DMM Bitcoin in Japan and nearly $235 million from WazirX in India.

The report also pointed out that a significant portion of the stolen crypto was due to compromised private keys, crucial for controlling access to user assets on crypto platforms. This highlights the crypto industry’s need to address the evolving threat landscape, especially in light of the recent Hyperliquid outflows.

Price Action: At the time of writing, HYPE, HyperLiquid’s native cryptocurrency was surprisingly unaffected, up over 11% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. 

Image via Wikimedia Commons

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.