$60Mn withdrawn from HyperLiquid on North Korea Hacker Fears

• $60Mn worth of USDC has been withdrawn from the HyperLiquid trading platform as wallet addresses linked to North Korean hackers have allegedly begun trading on the platform
• Experts believe these trades, which have accumulated a $700,000 loss are tests for weaknesses.

As of writing, about $60Mn in USDC has been withdrawn from the HyperLiquid perpetual trading platform on fears that activities from wallets linked with North Korea may precede an attack.

Wallet addresses linked to North Korean hacking groups began executing trades on the Perp trading platform over the weekend.

An X user familiar with cybersecurity and the activities of DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) hacker groups, called Tay, noted that “DPRK doesn’t trade. DPRK tests” suggesting that these trades (though losses) were made so the hackers could familiarise themselves with HyperLiquid’s platform.

https://x.com/tayvano_/status/1870967679919776097

HyperLiquid’s vulnerabilities

According to Tay, the HyperLiquid Layer-1, a blockchain that powers the exchange and an EVM layer, currently has only 4 validators which could be accessed with one line of code, provided hackers get their hands on “0 days”.

https://x.com/tayvano_/status/1870967850812477658

A 0-day (zero-day) is a software vulnerability that its developers or publishers are unaware of and have zero days to fix. Tay says that DPRK hacker groups are highly sophisticated and consistently get their hands on 0 days.

HyperLiquid’s rise

HyperLiquid is currently the largest on-chain perpetual trading platform with roughly 271,000 users, a total deposit volume of $12.14Bn, and a daily trading volume of $6.20Bn.

The platform launched its native token, HYPE, on Nov. 29 which has risen from a listing price of $1.97 to a current price of $27.97 as of publishing.

HYPE is now the 22nd largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalisation of $9.35Bn as of publishing.