Over the weekend, hackers stole over $290 million in cryptocurrencies from Kelp DAO, a protocol that enables customers to earn yield on their idle crypto investments.
By Monday, LayerZero, one of many initiatives affected by the hack, had accused North Korea of finishing up the theft. The hack is the largest cryptocurrency theft to this point this yr, following the April hack of cryptocurrency trade Drift that netted the hackers about $285 million in earnings.
In line with a put up on X, LayerZero mentioned hackers exploited the Kelp DAO via the LayerZero bridge, which permits completely different blockchains to ship directions to one another. The hackers then took benefit of Kelp’s distinctive safety configuration, which doesn’t require a number of verifications earlier than approving a transaction. This allowed hackers to siphon funds via fraudulent transactions.
The corporate cited “preliminary indicators” pointing to North Korea, particularly a crypto-targeting hacking group generally known as TraderTraitor, because the perpetrator.
Kelp DAO responded to LayerZero and accused them of theft on their behalf.
In recent times, North Korean hackers working for Kim Jong Un’s regime have been extremely profitable in stealing cryptocurrencies. Final yr, North Korean hackers stole greater than $2 billion in cryptocurrencies. The whole quantity of cryptocurrencies stolen by North Korea since 2017 is alleged to be roughly $6 billion.