North Koreans Hacked Cryptocurrency Gambling Site Stake.com, Stealing $41 Million

Online cryptocurrency gambling platform Stake.com, recently fell victim to a massive cyber-attack that resulted in a loss of $41 million. The Lazarus Group, a cyberterrorist organization run by North Korea, is behind the hack, as confirmed by the FBI.

The first indications of suspicious activity surfaced when Cyvers Alerts sounded the alarm on Twitter, after detecting multiple cagey transactions linked to Stake.com. Upon closer inspection on Etherscan, a suspicious address now labeled as “Stake.com Hacker” had received roughly $16 million in various stable coins, including Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Dai (DAI). Later investigations disclosed an additional loss of $17.8 million on the Binance Smart Chain, and a further $7.8 million on the Polygon network, bringing the total loss to $41 million.

https://twitter.com/Stake/status/1698746766076588057

The root cause of the breach was traced back to a leaked private key, highlighting the vulnerabilities even large platforms can have. Stake.com was quick to respond, acknowledging the unauthorized transactions in a tweet, but reassuring users that their funds were secure. The platform managed to restore withdrawals promptly after the incident.

Upon diving deeper into the cyber-attack, the FBI identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the culprits. This group is no stranger to cybercrime, being responsible for several high-profile virtual currency thefts across the globe. In 2023 alone, the group has reportedly pilfered more than $200 million.

To most poker players, online gambling site Stake.com is known as a backer of the budding streaming platform Kick.com. Launched in October 2022, Kick emerged in the streaming scene following Twitch’s ban on unregulated gambling sites. Gaining rapid popularity, especially among the gambling streaming community, Kick is known for its relaxed moderation, attractive revenue split for streamers, and more open streaming guidelines. This appeal has led many renowned Twitch streamers, including chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, to make the switch, albeit on a non-exclusive basis.