Hyperliquid Denies Lazarus Group Hack Amid $60M Withdrawals

Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid has denied being hacked by North Korea's Lazarus Group

On-chain data seems to show significant Ethereum transactions linked to North Korean-affiliated wallets but the platform has insisted there has been no exploit.

Nonetheless, the rumours triggered user withdrawals totalling over $60 million and a dip in the platform's HYPE token.

“There has been no DPRK exploit- or any exploit for that matter- of Hyperliquid. All user funds are acounted for. Hyperliquid Labs takes OpSec seriously. No Vulnerabilities have been shared by any party. To be clear, there was never any allegation of any exploit on Hyperliquid,” one of the platform’s executives posted on Discord.

On-chain data shows that approximately $476,489 in Ethereum as deposited onto Hyperliquid before being withdrawn on 23 December.

While not definitive evidence of an exploit, the unusually high volume of transactions from suspicious addresses has raised concerns about the platform's security.

MetaMask security expert Taylor Monahan criticized Hyperliquid’s response, emphasizing the severity of any potential engagement with Lazarus Group: "If I was the dude managing Hyperliquid's 4 validators (or those fucking ghetto ass binaries on gh) I would be shitting my pants right now," he tweeted.

Lazarus is believed to have stolen $900 million in 2024 alone, according to the US government.

Hyperliquid is yet to make an official statement, leaving its users and security experts alike concerned about the platform's resilience against advanced hackers.

Earlier this month, Hyperliquid experienced a meteoric rise. Distributing 31% of its total supply to early users, its airdrop on November 29 was valued at $1.9 billion, eclipsing the $1.5 billion Arbitrum airdrop.

Hyperliquid Takes DeFi by Storm

Hyperliquid is making waves, not just for its airdrop that showered users with tokens, and the HYPE token’s strong performance, but also for its innovative design and growing dominance in the perpetuals DEX market.

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This surge coincides with Hyperliquid capturing over 50% of the trading volume in the perpetuals DEX space last month. According to DeFiLlama data, Launched in Q1 2023, Hyperliquid is currently the fifth largest spot DEX across all chains.