The sophistication and precision of North Korean government-backed hackers are on the rise, now accounting for over 76% or nearly $600 million in cryptocurrency losses this year alone. A notable example is the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit, which involved an unprecedented in-person social engineering attack spanning months of meetings between North Korean proxies and Drift employees.
As Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy and Government Affairs at TRMLabs, noted, 'North Korean proxies sitting across a table from protocol employees over a period of months... This is no longer just a remote keyboard operation.' TRMLabs' report highlights how North Korea's primary hacking groups, DPRK and Lazarus, are responsible for 76% of all cryptocurrency losses due to hacks and exploits in 2026. Redbord added, 'What we are watching is not a North Korean campaign that is broader — it is one that is sharper... North Korea is moving faster and more precisely than ever.' The cumulative cryptocurrency theft by North Korea now exceeds $6 billion, attributed to incidents since 2017.
The findings by TRMLabs coincide with the Wasabi Protocol exploit, which used a similar approach to the Drift hack on April 19, where the attackers utilized a compromised deployer key to drain $4.5 million. In contrast to the Drift exploit, the $292 million KelpDAO breach exploited a known single-verifier flaw. The hackers behind the Drift exploit converted the proceeds to USDC, bridged to Ethereum, and swapped into ETH, following the DPRK's patient, multi-year cashout pattern.
In the KelpDAO exploit, Lazarus immediately laundered the proceeds through THORChain and Umbra, using Chinese intermediaries. The KelpDAO exploit led to DeFi's largest wipeouts, with $13 billion exiting several lending platforms, including Aave, which lost $8.54 billion in deposits over 48 hours, resulting in a nearly $200 million bad-debt crisis.