The sophistication of North Korean government-backed hackers is on the rise, with these groups now accounting for over 76% of crypto losses this year, totaling nearly $600 million. A notable example is the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit, which involved an unprecedented in-person social engineering attack spanning months of face-to-face meetings between North Korean agents and Drift employees.
According to Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy and Government Affairs at TRMLabs, "This is no longer just a remote operation; North Korean proxies sat across a table from protocol employees over several months, which is unprecedented in their crypto hacking campaign." TRMLabs' new report highlights the role of North Korea's primary hacking groups, DPRK and Lazarus, in 76% of all crypto losses due to hacks and exploits in 2026. Redbord notes, "What we're seeing is not a broader campaign, but a sharper one; North Korea is moving faster and more precisely than ever." The cumulative crypto theft by North Korea now exceeds $6 billion since 2017. The report's findings coincide with the Wasabi Protocol exploit, which used a similar strategy to the Drift hack on April 19, where attackers used 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 despite repeated warnings from LayerZero.
The hackers behind the Drift exploit converted the stolen funds to USDC, bridged to Ethereum, and swapped them into ETH, which remains unmoved, consistent with the DPRK's patient cashout pattern. In contrast, the Lazarus group immediately laundered the KelpDAO 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.