Ethereum Foundation, Watch Out! Top Influencer Warns of North Korean Threat

Bankless founder Ryan Sean Adams recently sounded the alarm over North Korean IT workers infiltrating cryptocurrency projects. 

Adams has warned that the days of anonymous developers in cryptocurrency might be coming to an end. 

He believes that even such major players as the Ethereum Foundation are not immune to such threats. 

The warning comes following the investigation by the Coindesk media outlet, which revealed that plenty of cryptocurrency projects unknowingly hired workers from North Korea. 

The extensive list of affected projects includes Cosmos, SushiSwap, and Yearn Finance. 

The North Korean workers came up with seemingly legitimate IDs and even active GitHub profiles in order to secure jobs at crypto firms.

On one occasion, a North Korean IT worker, who claimed to be from Japan, was exposed due to his accent.

Earlier this year, the United Nations Security Council revealed that thousands of North Korean workers managed to infiltrate Western tech companies. 

The council also estimated that the Hermit Kingdom had stolen more than $3 billion worth of crypto.

Lazarus Group, the hacker group that is allegedly run by the North Korean government, was famously behind the $625 million Ronin bridge exploit. 

The stolen crypto is used for financing the country's nuclear and ballistic missile program. 

North Korea has faced various international sanctions that are concerned with the development of nuclear weapons. 

Crypto has now emerged as North Korea's main lifetime. It also relies on counterfeiting consumer goods, arms trafficking, and other illegal activities in order to finance its nuclear program.