North Korea has “industrialized” cryptocurrency theft, turning it into a primary mechanism of revenue for the pariah state. That’s the conclusion of a new report by crypto security firm CertiK, which found that North Korean hackers have stolen $6.75 billion over the past decade, $2.6 billion of it in the past 18 months alone. The biggest incident by far was the 2025 Bybit hack, which saw $1.5 billion drained from the exchange. CertiK pointed to the “precision and scale of North Korean operations,” noting that in the past few years there have been fewer attacks that systematically targeted the highest-value opportunities. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been…
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2026 Wrench Attacks Spike to $101M
Violent crypto thefts double 2025 losses in four months
Violent wrench attacks against wealthy crypto holders have spiked in the first four months of 2026, with more than $101 million stolen. Europe leads the way with this type of theft, with France the epicenter of these attacks. Of the 34 wrench attacks documented by crypto security firm CertiK so far this year, 28 were in Europe and 24 in France. If the trend continues, CertiK said the total could reach 130 incidents this year, compared to 81 with a total of $52 million stolen in 2025. Wrench attacks generally consist of home invasions or kidnappings in which violence or the threat of violence is used to force victims to…
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Aave: ‘A Thief Does Not Own What He Steals’
Lending protocol fights effort to seize $73M stolen in Kelp DAO attack
“A thief does not own what he steals.” So said Aave founder Stani Kulechov in a statement following an emergency court filing seeking to unfreeze $73 million retrieved by Arbitrum DAO in the wake of a $293 million exploit. The Kelp DAO hack on April 18 left decentralized finance lending platform Aave stuck with $230 million in bad debt after hackers, believed to be from North Korea, used stolen and unbacked rsETH tokens to take out loans on Aave. That led to a bank-run style wave of withdrawals on Aave that effectively froze the protocol. The crypto community has rallied around Aave and Kelp DAO, raising $300 million in donations…
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Polymarket Teams With Chainalysis to Detect Insider Trading
Top prediction market seeks to clean up blockchain betting
Prediction market Polymarket has partnered with blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to track and reveal insider trading. There is growing concern about insider trading in prediction markets, in which users bet on the outcome of everything from sporting matches to elections. In April, an Army Green Beret was charged with using classified knowledge of the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro to win $400,000. He has pled not guilty. Chanalysis will provide data analytics and monitoring systems, investigative tools to provide information for law enforcement and regulators, and onchain security capabilities to assist Polymarket in identifying and eliminating insider trading. The goal is to flag suspicious trading patterns indicating a…
