A notorious North Korean hacking group is likely behind the theft of nearly US$300 million in cryptocurrency over the weekend, an affected party has said, in the biggest known crypto heist this year.
It is the latest such incident linked to North Korea, whose sophisticated cybercrime programme uses stolen cryptocurrency to help fund its nuclear weapons development, according to a United Nations panel.
Digital currency news site CoinDesk said the heist on the vault of online investment tool KelpDAO on Saturday was 2026’s biggest crypto exploit so far.
During the hack, two blockchain servers hosted by another crypto tech application called LayerZero were compromised, KelpDAO said on Tuesday.
That allowed a cryptocurrency token linked to the major Ethereum currency to be “drained” from KelpDAO, it said.
“On April 18, 2026, KelpDAO was exploited for approximately US$290 million,” LayerZero said in a statement.
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