- $60 million worth of USDC was withdrawn from the HyperLiquid trading platform after a wallet address linked to a North Korean hacker reportedly initiated trading on the platform.
- Experts believe that these transactions, which accumulated losses of $700,000, were a test of weakness.
As of this writing, approximately $60 million USDC has been withdrawn from the HyperLiquid perpetual trading platform due to concerns that activity from wallets linked to North Korea may have preceded the attack.
A wallet address linked to a North Korean hacking group began trading on the Perp trading platform last weekend.
“North Korea doesn’t trade,” said Tay, an The “DPRK test” suggests that these trades (albeit at a loss) were made to allow hackers to familiarize themselves with HyperLiquid’s platform.
LOL @ all the idiots who think USG forcing a freeze on Hyperliquid is dangerous AAAAAAAAAAHHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Friends, North Korea does not trade. North Korea test🤦♀️
— Tay 💖 (@tayvano_) December 22, 2024
HyperLiquid Vulnerabilities
According to Tay, HyperLiquid Layer-1, the blockchain that supports the exchange and EVM layers, currently has only four validators that can be accessed with one line of code if a hacker gets their hands on it on “day zero.”
Offer from 2 weeks ago still valid @HyperliquidX
I’m glad I can still do it asynchronously or over the phone. If you don’t like me I might give you one of my really cool and happy companions.
But if we don’t come to our senses as soon as possible, there will be enormous harm to people. pic.twitter.com/OxLlB4lygE
— Tay 💖 (@tayvano_) December 22, 2024
A zero-day is a software vulnerability that the developer or publisher is unaware of and has 0 days to fix it. Tay said North Korean hacker groups are very sophisticated and persistent in reaching out to day zero.
The Rise of HyperLiquid
HyperLiquid is currently the largest on-chain perpetual trading platform with approximately 271,000 users, $12.14 billion in total deposits, and $6.2 billion in daily trading volume.
The platform launched its native token, HYPE, on November 29, which has increased from a listing price of $1.97 to its current price of $27.97 at the time of publishing.
HYPE is currently the 22nd largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $9.35 billion at the time of publication.