Wallets linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group sold more than $30 million in Bitcoin on Hyperliquid over three weeks, then used the proceeds to buy Ethereum and Solana before moving the assets to exchanges. The transfers surface as Kraken parent Payward discusses bringing regulated Hyperliquid perpetuals to U.S. traders through its CFTC-regulated derivatives business.
Wallets associated with the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group sold more than $30 million in Bitcoin on Hyperliquid during the past three weeks, according to Arkham blockchain data. The wallets then used the proceeds to buy Ethereum and Solana before sending the assets to centralized exchanges, including Kraken, LBank, and KuCoin. Crypto investigator ZachXBT first identified the addresses in 2024, and Arkham later labeled them as connected to Lazarus.
Public blockchain records show transfers between addresses but do not reveal who controls the receiving exchange accounts. Kraken said its controls are designed to identify and block assets connected to sanctioned wallets before they reach the platform. LBank said it uses industry-standard compliance tools for continuous monitoring. KuCoin said it could not confirm the reported activity without reviewing the underlying wallet data.
Sanctions questions follow decentralized trading
The reported transfers carry a direct U.S. angle because the Treasury Department has sanctioned Lazarus Group and identified it as a cyber organization controlled by North Korea's government. U.S. authorities have linked the group to several digital-asset thefts, including the $625 million Ronin Network attack in 2022.
Trading on a decentralized exchange can complicate enforcement because Hyperliquid lets users connect a wallet and trade without opening a traditional brokerage account. Even so, the protocol's public blockchain still records transactions, letting firms such as Arkham trace transfers between labeled addresses. The presence of a sanctioned actor's assets on the platform does not establish that Hyperliquid assisted the activity or knew who controlled the wallets.
Payward pursues regulated US access
Bloomberg reported that Payward is in advanced discussions with Hyperliquid Labs over offering selected perpetual contracts to American traders through Bitnomial, its CFTC-regulated derivatives business. People familiar with the talks said Payward had presented the CFTC with an outline of the proposed structure, though any agreement would still require regulatory approval.
President Donald Trump raised the possible U.S. entry during an Aug. 19 White House event, saying he understood CFTC Chair Michael Selig was working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a "fully compliant and legal fashion". Payward completed its acquisition of Bitnomial in May and launched regulated crypto perpetuals for eligible U.S. customers in June.
Hyperliquid's scale complicates oversight
Hyperliquid runs its exchange through HyperCore, an on-chain system that handles order matching, margin calculations and liquidations without a conventional brokerage account. DefiLlama data showed the platform had processed approximately $5.19 trillion in cumulative perpetual volume, with open interest of roughly $13.3 billion. Any U.S. plan built around the platform would still need to address sanctions screening and customer identification before regulated products could launch.
Source: crypto.news
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