Over the weekend, hackers stole over $290 million in cryptocurrency from Kelp DAO, a protocol that allows users to earn yields on idle crypto investments. This makes it the largest crypto theft of the year so far, surpassing an earlier hack at crypto exchange Drift in April that netted hackers around $285 million.
LayerZero, one of the projects affected by the hack, accused North Korea of carrying out the heist. The company said the hackers exploited Kelp DAO via its LayerZero bridge, which allows different blockchains to send instructions to each other. The hackers then took advantage of Kelp's security configuration, which did not require multiple verifications before approving transactions.
The total amount of stolen crypto by North Korean hackers is estimated to be around $6 billion since 2017, with last year seeing more than $2 billion in stolen funds. LayerZero cited "preliminary indicators" that point to North Korea as the culprit, specifically its hacking group known as TraderTraitor. However, Kelp DAO has responded by blaming LayerZero for the theft instead.
The hack highlights ongoing security concerns in the crypto industry and the need for more robust measures to prevent such attacks from occurring.
