🧨 NFT Project by Pepe’s Creator Hacked After Hiring North Korean Hacker — Losses Exceed $1M+
Blow to the NFT Market:
❗ Matt Furie (creator of Pepe), in collaboration with Chainsaw, launched an NFT collection… and accidentally hired a North Korean hacker.
🔍 What happened:
— The hacker was hired to the IT team and gained access to minting contracts
— NFTs were minted and sold until their price crashed
— Then 3 more collections were hit — totaling $310K stolen
— Another company, Favrr, lost $680K after hiring the same infiltrator as CTO (!)
🛑 Both companies failed to properly vet their employees. ZachXBT published an investigation confirming:
📡 This was a professional operation linked to North Korea, using fake resumes — a known Lazarus Group tactic.
⚠️ A growing threat:
While crypto projects chase hype, security remains a major blind spot.
Bad actors are exploiting social engineering — not breaking code, but breaking trust.
💬 Furie and Chainsaw have remained silent. Favrr is the only one to publicly admit the breach.
🤔 What if this is just the beginning of a new wave of attacks?
🔘 Web3 security needs a serious upgrade
🔘 Vetting employees is a must
🔘 The NFT space is too vulnerable
🔘 This is what happens when negligence takes over