SecondFi Shuts Down After $2.4M Hack, Lazarus Group Suspected

Groom Lake, an intelligence firm hired by blockchain firm EMURGO, traced the main attacker as "external, and well-funded, with indicators consistent with activity by a professional, state-aligned threat actor." The firm found signs pointing to North Korea's Lazarus Group.

SecondFi expects wallet export tools ready early next month, with a zero-knowledge recovery portal rolling out later in August.

The attack is part of a string of exploits at digital asset platforms this year. The April hack of the Kelp DAO decentralized finance platform saw roughly $292 million stolen, triggering a chain reaction that erased nearly $9 billion from the largest DeFi lending platform.

Ryan Rugg, global head of digital assets for Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, said during a PYMNTS podcast that the incident "is going to take some of the confidence out of the market." She stopped short of calling it a defining setback. Any institutional decision on DeFi will depend on whether companies can build "proper redundancy and security at every layer where the trust resides," Rugg said.