North Korea Spotted Testing New Crypto Exchange Hyperliquid Before Potential Attack, Researcher Claims

Bitcoin led a crypto market correction early Monday, taking BTC to the $92,762 level and putting it down over 12% over the last seven days.

Bitcoin led a crypto market correction early Monday, dropping to the $92,762 level and showing a decline of over 12% over the last seven days.

At the tail end of the weekend, well-known blockchain security expert Taylor Monahan, who works for crypto wallet MetaMask, reported that several addresses linked to the DPRK were seen trading on Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetuals exchange with its own chain.

Monahan said the North Koreans were likely testing out the network before considering it as a target for their next attack.

In its Discord channel, Hyperliquid pushed back on Monahan’s analysis, saying that there was no threat from the DPRK.

“We are aware of reports circulating regarding activity by supposed DPRK addresses. There has been no DPRK exploit – or any exploit for that matter – of Hyperliquid. All user funds are accounted for. Hyperliquid Labs takes opsec seriously. No vulnerabilities have been shared by any party.”

However, HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, dropped nearly 20% while the exchange suffered nearly $113 million in stablecoin outflows, according to blockchain analytics platform Dune.

HYPE has since stabilized and is currently trading at $26.75 with a market cap of $9.1 billion, and its correction is more or less in line with the rest of the crypto markets.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it was dismantling North Korea’s digital asset money laundering network by sanctioning Chinese nationals Lu Huaying and Zhang Jian, who used a front company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to launder illicit money and convert crypto funds for the DPRK.

Says Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith,

“As the DPRK continues to use complex criminal schemes to fund its WMD and ballistic missile programs—including through the exploitation of digital assets—Treasury remains focused on disrupting the networks that facilitate this flow of funds to the regime.”

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