A cyberattack has targeted Pepe NFT projects associated with Matt Furie, creator of the original Pepe the Frog character. According to reports, this attack was orchestrated by North Korean hackers, leading to losses totaling more than $1 million. Beyond this NFT-based focus, the breach is a jarring wake-up call for the entire Web3 space about its own serious vulnerabilities.
Furie’s Replicandy collection, Chainsaw, a company backing the collection, accidentally hired a North Korean operative for a critical IT role. It was this action that set off the cyberattack. When the hacker got into the minting contract for Furie’s Replicandy collection, it crashed floor prices across the board.
The same hacker soon replicated this attack on three other Chainsaw-backed NFT collections, draining over $310,000. On top of that, the hacker compromised a second NFT platform, Favrr, which resulted in an additional $680,000 stolen.
Blockchain analyst ZachXBT connected the attack to known North Korean crypto laundering techniques. He thinks Lazarus Group is the one behind it. This dark organization is known for carrying out multi-million dollar exploits in the expanding digital asset ecosystem.
"Why would a developer who claims to be living in the US have a Korean language setting, Astral VPN usage, and have an Asia/Russia time zone?" - ZachXBT
The infiltrator was actually hired to be Favrr’s Chief Technology Officer. ZachXBT raised concerns about the developer’s profile being fake, pointing to several discrepancies in their online presence.
Matt Furie has not released any comment on the apparent cyberattack. He further turned off his DMs on X, previously known as Twitter. Favrr has publicly acknowledged the breach.
The incident underlines how critical it is to have strong security measures and a deep vetting process in place in the Web3 space. Additionally, it acts as a cautionary tale that we are still our own worst enemy and the biggest vulnerability.
