North Korean Hackers Suspected in $300 Million Crypto Heist, Largest of 2026

A notorious hacking group from North Korea is suspected of orchestrating the theft of nearly $300 million in cryptocurrency over the weekend, according to an affected party, marking the largest known crypto heist so far this year.

The incident is the latest in a series of cyberattacks linked to North Korea, whose advanced hacking operations are believed to channel stolen digital assets into funding its nuclear weapons programme, as noted by a United Nations panel.

Crypto news platform CoinDesk reported that the breach targeting the vault of online investment platform KelpDAO on Saturday represents the biggest crypto exploit of 2026 to date.

KelpDAO stated that the attack involved the compromise of two blockchain servers hosted by LayerZero, another crypto technology platform, allowing hackers to siphon off tokens tied to the major cryptocurrency Ethereum.

In a statement, LayerZero confirmed that KelpDAO suffered losses of approximately $290 million on April 18, adding that early indicators point to a “highly sophisticated state actor,” likely the Lazarus Group.

The company reassured users that no other cross-chain assets or applications were affected by the breach.

Experts warn that such incidents could undermine confidence in decentralized finance (DeFi), a system that enables financial transactions without intermediaries like banks or governments. Henri Arslanian, co-founder of Nine Blocks Capital Management, noted that the scale and complexity of the attack strongly suggest the involvement of the Lazarus Group.

A UN report in 2024 estimated that North Korea has stolen more than $3 billion in cryptocurrency since 2017. In a separate case last year, the United States accused Pyongyang of carrying out a $1.5 billion digital asset theft, then considered the largest crypto heist on record.