North Korea's Lazarus Group Unloads $30M in Bitcoin Through Hyperliquid
North Korean hackers linked to the Lazarus Group have liquidated over $30 million in Bitcoin through the Hyperliquid platform over a three-week period, according to new findings. The funds were exchanged for Ethereum and Solana tokens before being transferred to major centralized trading platforms, including Kraken, LBank, and KuCoin.
The incident marks not the first appearance of North Korean-connected wallets on Hyperliquid, with a similar occurrence happening in December 2024 after a MetaMask security analyst discovered suspected North Korean wallets conducting trades on the platform since at least October that year. The revelation prompted approximately $250 million in net withdrawals within 24 hours.
Payward, the company behind Kraken, is currently conducting advanced negotiations with Hyperliquid Labs to provide perpetual futures trading to American customers through its derivatives platform, Bitnomial, which is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC has acknowledged working with Hyperliquid to establish a compliant entry into the U.S. market.