Over the weekend, hackers stole over $290 million in cryptocurrencies from Kelp DAO, a protocol that allows users to earn yield on their idle crypto investments.
By Monday, LayerZero, one of the projects affected by the hack, had accused North Korea of carrying out the robbery. The hack is the biggest cryptocurrency theft so far this year, following the April hack of cryptocurrency exchange Drift that netted the hackers about $285 million in profits.
According to a post on X, LayerZero said hackers exploited the Kelp DAO through the LayerZero bridge, which allows different blockchains to send instructions to each other. The hackers then took advantage of Kelp’s unique security configuration, which does not require multiple verifications before approving a transaction. This allowed hackers to siphon funds through fraudulent transactions.
The company cited “preliminary indicators” pointing to North Korea, specifically a crypto-targeting hacking group known as TraderTraitor, as the culprit.
Kelp DAO responded to LayerZero and accused them of theft on their behalf.
In recent years, North Korean hackers working for Kim Jong Un’s regime have been highly successful in stealing cryptocurrencies. Last year, North Korean hackers stole more than $2 billion in cryptocurrencies. The total amount of cryptocurrencies stolen by North Korea since 2017 is said to be approximately $6 billion.
