Lazarus Group Transactions via Hyperliquid Raise US Compliance Questions

Over a three-week period, wallets linked to North Korea's Lazarus Group moved more than $30 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) via Hyperliquid. This has raised sanctions-related concerns as the platform seeks access to the US market.

Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham analyst Emmett Gallic pinpointed the wallets, drawing on a 2024 identification by investigator ZachXBT. The Bitcoin was swapped into Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) before being sent to centralized exchanges such as Kraken, LBank, and KuCoin.

Trump Mentions Hyperliquid in US Market Push

At a White House event in August, President Trump directly referenced Hyperliquid. He credited Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Michael Selig with driving the initiative.

“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.

Hyperliquid's native token, HYPE, was trading at $84 on the BeInCrypto Markets page, up 5% over the previous 24 hours. The relatively limited price movement indicates traders have not yet factored in potential sanctions troubles. The token reached an all-time high of $86.71 on August 27, shortly before the wallet activity came to light.

How the CFTC views this as a possible compliance issue could determine how rapidly Hyperliquid establishes a US presence.

Earlier this year, Selig's CFTC approved a Bitcoin perpetual product on a registered exchange. That could serve as a reference point for how regulators handle Hyperliquid's application.

Sanctions Challenges Amid US Regulatory Efforts

The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the Lazarus Group in 2019. The group has been implicated in billions of dollars of stolen cryptocurrency, including the 2022 Ronin Network breach and the $1.5 billion Bybit hack in 2025, which stands as the largest crypto theft ever recorded. BeInCrypto has reported that North Korea-linked actors stole around $1.6 billion in crypto during the first half of 2025, accounting for roughly 70% of global crypto losses in that period.

The information about the wallet activity emerged as Kraken parent Payward negotiates a regulated US pathway for Hyperliquid via its Bitnomial subsidiary. Payward finalized its $550 million acquisition of Bitnomial in May, securing three CFTC-registered licenses in a single transaction.