DeFi & NFT
By Maheen Hernandez
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How the Hackers Got In. The playbook changed. North Korea's crews aren't going after core smart contracts anymore.
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Where the Money Goes. North Korea's total crypto stash sits at $6.75 billion, according to industry estimates.
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North Korean hackers just swiped over $500 million from decentralized finance platforms in less than three weeks.
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Two massive exploits pushed North Korea's 2026 crypto haul past $700 million. KelpDAO got hit on April 18, losing $290 million in what LayerZero confirmed two days later as a…
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The playbook changed. North Korea's crews aren't going after core smart contracts anymore. They're hitting the stuff around the edges instead.
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KelpDAO's breach came through the Remote Procedure Call infrastructure that LayerZero Labs uses for its Decentralized Verifier Network.
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The Ketman Project spent six months digging into something worse. Turns out around 100 North Korean operatives have jobs at blockchain companies worldwide. Real jobs.
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North Korea's total crypto stash sits at $6.75 billion, according to industry estimates. Last year they grabbed $2 billion, including a $1.5 billion score from Bybit exchange.
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The money trail shows structural limits in how Pyongyang can move digital assets. Cross-chain mixing helps obscure things, but the reliance on geographically concentrated…
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Security experts keep saying the same thing: DeFi platforms need better internal access controls and faster incident response. The weak points aren't always in the code itself.
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More context: North Korea Swipes $500 Million in Two Weeks Through DeFi Exploits
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The insider threat is real and growing. Those 100 North Korean operatives embedded in blockchain companies aren't just collecting paychecks.
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This dual-revenue model works frighteningly well for the regime. IT workers generate steady monthly income while simultaneously positioning themselves for major protocol exploits.
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The laundering techniques reveal something important about North Korea's constraints. By sticking to regionalized pathways and avoiding mainstream exchanges, DPRK actors are…
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The $6.75 billion figure represents years of persistent, coordinated effort. North Korea didn't stumble into this.
The Currency Analytics
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