Will North Korea Allegations Derail Hyperliquid's US Entry Plans?

Wallets tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group moved more than $30 million in Bitcoin (BTC) through Hyperliquid over three weeks. The activity raises sanctions questions as the exchange pursues US market access.

Emmett Gallic, an analyst at blockchain intelligence firm Arkham, identified the wallets. He cited a 2024 attribution by investigator ZachXBT. The funds converted to Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) before reaching centralized exchanges including Kraken, LBank, and KuCoin.

Trump Name-Drops Hyperliquid for US Entry

President Trump named Hyperliquid directly at an August White House event. He credited Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael Selig with leading the effort.

“I understand that Mike is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion, working very hard on that,” Trump said at the event.

HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, traded at $84 on the BeInCrypto Markets page. That reflected a 5% gain over 24 hours. The muted move suggests traders have not priced in sanctions risk yet. The token set a record high of $86.71 on August 27, just days before the wallet activity surfaced.

Whether the CFTC treats this as a compliance red flag could shape how quickly Hyperliquid secures a US foothold.

Selig’s CFTC already cleared a Bitcoin perpetual product on a registered exchange this year. That precedent could inform how regulators treat Hyperliquid’s application.

Sanctions Risk Meets a US Regulatory Push

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Lazarus Group in 2019. It has been tied to billions of dollars in stolen crypto, including the 2022 Ronin Network breach.

The group has also been linked to the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025, the largest crypto theft on record. BeInCrypto has reported that North Korea-linked actors stole roughly $1.6 billion in crypto in the first half of 2025. That represented roughly 70% of global crypto losses during that period.

The disclosure surfaced as Kraken parent Payward negotiates a regulated US pathway for Hyperliquid through its Bitnomial subsidiary. Payward closed its $550 million Bitnomial deal in May, gaining three CFTC-registered licenses at once.