Elliptic: Drift attack incident suspected to be carried out by North Korean hackers

ME News, April 2 (UTC+8): blockchain analytics firm Elliptic stated that the Drift Protocol was hit by an attack that resulted in a loss of $285 million, with “multiple signs” pointing to the North Korea-supported DPRK hacker group. Elliptic focused on analyzing on-chain behavior, money-laundering techniques, and network-level signals, all of which matched previously reported attacks linked to the state. Elliptic’s report said: “If confirmed, this would be the 18th DPRK attack action that Elliptic has tracked this year, with more than $300 million stolen to date.” On the technical side, Elliptic characterized the attack as “premeditated and carefully planned,” noting that before the main attacks there were early test transactions and pre-positioned wallets. After the attack was carried out, the funds were quickly consolidated and moved via cross-chain transfers, converted into assets with higher liquidity, forming an organized and repeatable money-laundering process intended to obscure the source of funds while maintaining control. The incident involved more than 10 types of assets: funds were transferred cross-chain from Solana to Ethereum and other chains, further highlighting the importance of cross-chain traceability. Drift Protocol is the largest decentralized perpetual contract trading platform on the Solana blockchain, and its token has fallen by more than 40% to approximately $0.06 since the hack. (Source: ChainCatcher)