Hyperliquid Denies Lazarus Group Hack Despite Suspicious Ethereum Transactions

On-chain data seems to show significant Ethereum transactions linked to North Korean-affiliated wallets but the platform has insisted there has been no exploit.

on-chain data appears to show substantial Ethereum transactions linked to North Korean-affiliated wallets, yet the platform has maintained that there was no exploit.

Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid has denied being hacked by North Korea's Lazarus Group, despite on-chain data showing significant Ethereum transactions linked to North Korean-affiliated wallets.

The rumors prompted user withdrawals of over $60 million and a dip in the platform's HYPE token.

"There has been no DPRK exploit- or any exploit for that matter- of Hyperliquid. All user funds are acounted for. Hyperliquid Labs takes OpSec seriously. No Vulnerabilities have been shared by any party. To be clear, there was never any allegation of any exploit on Hyperliquid,” a platform executive posted on Discord.

According to @tayvano_, a North Korean-linked address deposited 476,489 $USDC into #Hyperliquid, went long on $ETH at $3,791.8, and was liquidated when the price hit $3,334. This loss occurred over two days of trading.

On-chain data indicates that around $476,489 in Ethereum was deposited into Hyperliquid and withdrawn on December 23.

While not definitive proof of an exploit, the unusually high volume of transactions from suspicious addresses has raised concerns about the platform's security.

MetaMask security expert Taylor Monahan criticized Hyperliquid’s response, highlighting the severity of any potential engagement with Lazarus Group: "If I was the dude managing Hyperliquid's 4 validators (or those fucking ghetto ass binaries on gh) I would be shitting my pants right now," he tweeted.

DPRK's trading career is...uh....going.....?tbh if i was the dude managing Hyperliquid's 4 validators (or those fucking ghetto ass binaries on gh) I would be shitting my pants right now.Hyperliquid dudes dont seem worried at all though so im sure its fine. ? pic.twitter.com/JrrU7t1sJe

According to the US government, Lazarus is believed to have stolen $900 million in 2024 alone.

Hyperliquid has yet to make an official statement, leaving its users and security experts concerned about the platform's resilience against advanced hackers.

Earlier this month, Hyperliquid experienced a meteoric rise. Distributing 31% of its total supply to early users, its airdrop on November 29 was valued at $1.9 billion, surpassing the $1.5 billion Arbitrum airdrop.

This surge coincides with Hyperliquid capturing over 50% of the trading volume in the perpetuals DEX space last month. According to DeFiLlama data, Launched in Q1 2023, Hyperliquid is currently the fifth largest spot DEX across all chains.