Suspicions were raised that North Korea might have been behind the largest DeFi attack in 2023 after over $179K worth of ETH was sent to a flagged address.
The hacker behind the Euler Finance attack moved 100 Ether (ETH) to an address previously linked to North Korean hackers.
This information allows assuming that North Korea orchestrated the attack or that it was a misdirection to lead the authorities off their trail.
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Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, was the first to notice the transfer. This address was previously used in the Aixe Infinity attack, where over $500 million worth of crypto was stolen.
Chainalyis also revealed that the hackers moved 3000 ETH to the Euler protocol deployer account. It remains unclear whether the hacker has reconsidered Euler’s $20 million reward or they are just clowning around.
It is worth noting that the address was once flagged by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The authority maintains a list of entities and individuals subject to restrictions and sanctions, which also includes several North Korean entities.
Following the attack, Euler Labs CEO Michael Bentley tweeted that their protocol had been audited ten times in the last two years. Six leading blockchain security firms were involved in these audits.
Many firms have created insurance funds and bug bounty programs in response to the security risk associated with DeFi protocols. Many of them have also invested heavily in independent audits.
Thus far, Euler Finance has yet to announce a compensation fund for those that lost their money during the attack.
