North Korean Hackers Accused of £17M Bitcoin Heist, Causing UK Crypto Firm’s Collapse

North Korean hackers have been accused of a £17 million Bitcoin theft that led to the closure of a British cryptocurrency company. The Lazarus cyber group, North Korea’s state-sponsored hacking organization, has been identified as the potential culprit for the cryptocurrency heist from Lykke, a UK-incorporated trading platform.

Lykke was founded in 2015 and operated out of Switzerland but was registered in the UK. The company announced last year that it had lost $22.8 million in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, forcing it to halt operations. In March, a judge ordered the company’s liquidation following a legal campaign by over 70 affected users.

North Korea was named as the potential hacker in a recent report by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), a branch of the Treasury. The report stated that the attack was attributed to "malicious cyber actors from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," who stole funds on the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks.

The Lykke company was founded by Richard Olsen, the great-great-grandson of Swiss banking patriarch Julius Baer. Olsen was declared bankrupt in January and is the subject of criminal investigations in Switzerland. Clients claim they lost £5.7 million as a result of the company's closure.