North Korea Stole 76% of All Crypto Hack Value in 2026 — With Just Two Attacks
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North Korea Stole 76% of All Crypto Hack Value in 2026 — With Just Two Attacks
- North Korean hackers, from two distinct groups, stole approximately USD 577 million in 2026 YTD — 76% of all crypto hack losses through April, across just a handful of attributed incidents.
- The Drift Protocol hack (USD 285 million, April 1) involved three weeks of pre-attack staging and months of social engineering to compromise protocol signers, executing the full drain in approximately 12 minutes.
- The KelpDAO hack (USD 292 million, April 18) exploited a single-verifier design flaw in a LayerZero bridge, then laundered proceeds through THORChain after USD 75 million was frozen on Arbitrum.
- The two attacks show diverging laundering playbooks: Drift, after an initial cross-chain speedrun to Ethereum, is dormant; KelpDAO pivoted to Bitcoin via THORChain after Arbitrum froze a portion of the funds and is now in the midst of a textbook TraderTraitor …
- North Korean hackers, from two distinct groups, stole approximately USD 577 million in 2026 YTD — 76% of all crypto hack losses through April, across just a handful of attributed incidents.
- The Drift Protocol hack (USD 285 million, April 1) involved three weeks of pre-attack staging and months of social engineering to compromise protocol signers, executing the full drain in approximately 12 minutes.
- The KelpDAO hack (USD 292 million, April 18) exploited a single-verifier design flaw in a LayerZero bridge, then laundered proceeds through THORChain after USD 75 million was frozen on Arbitrum.
- The two attacks show diverging laundering playbooks: Drift, after an initial cross-chain speedrun to Ethereum, is dormant; KelpDAO pivoted to Bitcoin via THORChain after Arbitrum froze a portion of the funds and is now in the midst of a textbook TraderTraitor …