North Korean Hackers Move $30M of Stolen Bitcoin Through Exchange – What's Going On?

North Korean hackers have moved more than $30 million in Bitcoin through Hyperliquid exchange just as President Trump wants to bring the trading platform into the regulated U.S. financial system.

Here's everything you need to know...

How North Korean Hackers Moved $30 Million Through Hyperliquid

Wallets linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group have sold more than $30 million of Bitcoin on Hyperliquid over the past three weeks.

The proceeds were used to buy Ethereum and Solana before being transferred to other exchanges, including Kraken, LBank and KuCoin.

The wallets had previously been linked to Lazarus by blockchain investigator ZachXBT, while the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Lazarus in 2019.

There is no evidence Hyperliquid itself was hacked.

The concern is that people can trade directly from their wallets without the identity checks used by most traditional financial platforms. That becomes much harder to defend when sanctioned groups can move millions through the system.

Why Trump Wants Hyperliquid in the United States

That makes the timing particularly awkward.

Trump said earlier this month that CFTC Chairman Mike Selig is working to bring Hyperliquid into the U.S. “in a fully compliant and legal fashion.”

Hyperliquid has already processed more than $5 trillion of perpetual-futures trading. These contracts allow traders to bet on whether an asset will rise or fall without owning it or facing a fixed expiry date.

Bringing that activity into America could give regulators greater oversight.

But the Lazarus transactions expose the challenge: Washington wants the trading activity, while still needing a way to stop sanctioned money from flowing through it.

Why Japan’s Interest Rates Could Move Bitcoin Next

A separate fight over Japan’s monetary policy could matter directly for Bitcoin, which is trading around $78,000 today.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has pushed Japan toward as Washington tries to strengthen the yen.

For years, investors have borrowed cheaply in yen and moved that money into assets around the world.

If Japan raises rates and the yen strengthens, some of those trades could be reversed, forcing investors to sell riskier assets.

Bitcoin was caught in this kind of selloff after a Bank of Japan rate increase in August 2024.

The contrast is striking. Governments can influence central banks and change interest rates. Bitcoin’s supply rules cannot be changed by a finance minister or central banker.

Governments Can Change Rates. What Could Change the Next Decade?

Today’s stories show how quickly money, regulation and technology are colliding.

The bigger opportunity may be understanding which technologies are changing the system before that shift becomes obvious.

That’s why we created The $5 Trillion Signal, a completely free, beginner-friendly briefing on five technologies we believe could reshape the global economy, including AI, robotics, energy, biotech and blockchain.

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