Elliptic flags $285 million Drift exploit as a likely North Korea-linked operation

Elliptic has identified multiple indicators suggesting the involvement of North Korea’s state-sponsored DPRK hacker group in the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit, the largest of its kind this year. The firm points to on-chain behavior, laundering methodologies, and network signals mirroring previous attacks linked to the group. The stolen funds were rapidly consolidated, swapped, bridged across chains, and converted into liquid assets, demonstrating a structured laundering process. Elliptic highlights the challenges posed by Solana’s account model, which can fragment activity across multiple addresses, and emphasizes the importance of cross-chain tracing capabilities. This incident, if confirmed, would be the eighteenth DPRK-linked theft Elliptic has tracked this year, totaling over $300 million stolen, contributing to a sustained campaign funding North Korea’s weapons programs.

(Source：CoinDesk)