THORChain Co-Founder Loses $1.3 Million to North Korean Hack

John-Paul Thorbjornsen, co-founder of THORChain, recently suffered a $1.3 million hack carried out by North Korean scammers. THORChain was very clear that company funds are completely secure.

ZachXBT called the incident “a bit poetic,” calling attention to THORChain’s role in laundering money from other major thefts. He reminded his audience of Thorbjornsen’s previous comments on Lazarus Group activities.

North Korea Hacks THORChain Founder

North Korean hacks have been prolific right now, with a large number of high-profile incidents. Last night, accounts began reporting that THORChain directly experienced such an attack, although the platform was quite adamant that company wallets were not impacted.

Instead, THORChain co-founder John-Paul Thorbjornsen confirmed that his personal funds were in the crosshairs. The incident took place a few days ago, but he directly acknowledged that he was the victim:

With this public admission, a fuller picture became clear. North Korean scammers enabled the hack by means of a video call, which is a common tactic of theirs. This enabled the hackers to find old private keys on Thorbjornsen’s iCloud, while his multisig wallets apparently remained safe.

THORSwap also offered a bounty for funds returned.

Just Desserts for Money Launderers?

Ironically, some of the crypto industry’s biggest security sleuths have been deriding the incident. ZachXBT reminded his audience that THORChain laundered funds from the Bybit hack, North Korea’s most successful crypto heist.

The platform has been accused of laundering stolen money on several occasions. For these reasons, ZachXBT called it “a bit poetic” that North Korean hacks targeted someone who “has greatly benefited financially” from these laundering incidents.

He also quoted a previous Bybit-related interview appearance from Thorbjornsen, where he defended the DPRK’s right to carry out these incidents:

“[North Korea] has the right to be sovereign. If they exploit security loopholes and are able to move crypto…that is their effort. They’re not inherently doing anything wrong in my opinion,” he claimed in an interview. Thorbjornsen also confirmed that THORChain made between $5 and $10 million from processing Bybit hack funds.

In other words, this is a very chaotic incident. Since this North Korean hack only targeted one THORChain employee, there’s no guarantee that it will even change the firm’s policy.

After all, independently of financial concerns, Thorbjornsen defended the Lazarus Group’s actions on philosophical grounds.

Still, one thing seems relatively straightforward. Although crypto sleuths have already been struggling to deal with this crime wave, ZachXBT has been firm and vocal with his lack of sympathy. This could deter independent investigators from working to help track and recover these funds.