DPRK-linked crypto theft topped $578M in April after the Kelp DAO exploit, as attacks continue to expand across protocols, companies and end users. Kelp DAO suffered a $292 million hack on Saturday, overtaking Drift as the largest crypto exploit of the year so far. North Korea-linked hackers are suspected to be behind the attack. Kelp DAO said Monday that the exploit stemmed from a failure of cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero’s infrastructure. LayerZero said the breach was enabled by Kelp DAO’s use of a single verifier configuration to approve cross-chain messages. LayerZero said that “preliminary indicators” attributed the exploit to TraderTraitor, a subgroup of North Korea’s state-backed hacking unit known as Lazarus Group. Read more
SEC Chair Paul Atkins says the SEC is “on the cusp” of an innovation exemption to enable compliant onchain trading of tokenized securities. US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins said the agency is nearing the release of an exemption that would allow market participants to trade tokenized securities onchain within a compliant framework. Speaking at the Economic Club of Washington on Tuesday, Atkins said the SEC is close to introducing what he described as an exemption aimed at enabling limited activity in tokenized markets while the agency develops longer-term rules. “We are on the cusp of releasing what I call an ‘innovation exemption,’ which will provide market participants with a cabined framework to begin facilitating the trading of tokenized securities onchain in a compliant fashion as the Commission works toward long-term rules of the road,” he said. Read more