North Korea-linked addresses, potentially testing the exchange for vulnerabilities, have racked up losses surpassing $700,000, according to one expert.
HyperLiquid, a decentralized exchange and layer-1 blockchain platform for perpetual futures (perps), has seen significant outflows of USDC amid suspicions that North Korean hackers are interacting with the platform. This was reported by Tay, a pseudonymous observer known for monitoring crypto protocols threatened by North Korea, in a post on X.
By 10:00 UTC on Monday, a record $60 million in USDC had been withdrawn from the exchange, according to Hashed Official’s Dune-based tracker. USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin, is used as collateral on HyperLiquid, which still holds $2.2 billion in USDC across its deposit bridge.
Tay stated that addresses connected to North Korean hackers have accumulated losses exceeding $700,000 while trading on HyperLiquid, suggesting that the hackers may be testing the platform’s features and vulnerabilities in preparation for a potential malicious attack.
“DPRK doesn’t trade, DPRK tests,” Tay explained.
CoinDesk reached out to HyperLiquid via X for comment on the USDC outflows and the potential threat posed by North Korea.
Tay revealed that they contacted HyperLiquid two weeks prior to offer assistance in countering the possible threat. “I want to emphasize that these are among the most sophisticated and rapidly evolving DPRK threat groups. They are highly creative and persistent. They also gain access to 0days, such as the one Chrome patched today,” Tay’s message to HyperLiquid read.
HyperLiquid is the leading on-chain perpetuals exchange, accounting for over 50% of the total on-chain perpetuals trading volume, which hit $8.6 billion in the last 24 hours.
The platform launched its native token, HYPE, on November 29. Since then, HYPE has surged over 600%, reaching $28.6 and briefly surpassing a $10 billion market cap. As of this writing, HYPE is the 22nd largest digital asset globally, according to Coingecko.
