HyperLiquid, a layer 1 blockchain and decentralized exchange for perpetual futures (perps), has seen a notable outflow from the USDC stablecoin amid speculation that North Korean hackers are interacting with the platform, according to a post on X by pseudonymous observer Tay, known for Tracking the country’s threats to cryptographic protocols.
A record $60 million worth of USDC left the exchange at 10:00 UTC on Monday, according to Hashed Official’s Dune-based tracker. USDC, the world’s second-largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, is used as collateral on HyperLiquid. The deposit bridge still has $2.2 billion worth of USDC.
Addresses associated with hackers from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) have racked up losses exceeding $700,000 while trading on HyperLiquid, Tay said. The transactions indicate that hackers are potentially becoming familiar with the inner workings of the platform to launch a malicious attack.
“The DPRK does not trade. The DPRK conducts tests,” Tay said.
CoinDesk reached out to HyperLiquid on X for comment on USDC outflows and the possible threat from North Korea.
Tay said they contacted the platform two weeks ago and offered help in countering a potential threat.
“I really want to emphasize that these are the most sophisticated and rapidly evolving threat groups of any in the DPRK. They are very creative and persistent. They also have their hands on 0days (like the one Chrome patched today,” Tay’s message reads a said the platform.
HyperLiquid is the leading on-chain perpetuals exchange, controlling over 50% of the total on-chain perpetuals trading volume, which amounted to $8.6 billion in the last 24 hours.
The platform introduced its HYPE token on November 29. Since then, it has
rose more than 600% to $28.6, briefly surpassing $10 billion in market capitalization. At the time of writing, HYPE was the 22nd largest digital asset in the world, according to Coingecko.
