Techub News reports, citing Cointelegraph, that in April 2025 North Korean hackers infiltrated the decentralized exchange Drift Protocol through an in-person meeting. After establishing a six-month working relationship, they deployed malware, which led to the intrusion of the protocol developers’ machines, causing a loss of $280 million. The Drift Protocol team said the threat actors participated in industry conferences and built relationships through a third-party intermediary, and during this time no North Korean nationals appeared in person. The Ethereum Foundation confirmed that more than 100 North Korea-backed hackers infiltrated cryptocurrency projects in the same period. On-chain investigator ZachXBT disclosed that North Korean IT workers held jobs at technology companies under disguised identities, earning profits of up to $1 million per month.