The Solana DeFi world is facing a serious attack, and it’s not coming from a flaw in the software itself. It’s believed to be the work of North Korea. In just eight days, they reportedly stole $285 million from Drift Protocol and even placed someone suspected of working for them as the top tech leader at another Solana exchange. The situation is causing uncertainty in the price of SOL, and the overall perception of Solana’s security is rapidly worsening, far beyond what any price chart can show.
On Tuesday, the decentralized exchange Stabble, built on Solana, advised its users to remove their funds from the platform right away. This came after a blockchain investigator known as ZachXBT publicly linked the exchange’s previous Chief Technology Officer – identified as Keisuke Watanabe – to potential hacking activity originating from North Korea.
Our latest update:
We’ve confirmed that a developer from North Korea was part of our team until about a year ago. He received support from other individuals in North Korea. We’d like to thank @derparsel and @zachxbt for their contributions.
Historically we have done audits with Sec3 and neodyme – everything looked…
— stabble (@stabbleorg) April 8, 2026
The protocol recently transitioned to a new team and started the day with $1.75 million worth of assets locked in it. However, an emergency alert caused a sharp drop of 62% in that value, bringing it down to under $663,000, as reported by DeFiLlama. The new team urged users on X (formerly Twitter) to withdraw their funds immediately as a precaution, stating, “EMERGENCY! Guys, please temporarily withdraw your liquidity instantly! Better safe than sorry.” While the reason for the alert hasn’t been revealed, the firm has confirmed they are conducting security checks.
The recent Stabble incident isn’t isolated. It comes after the $285 million hack of Drift Protocol on April 1st, which investigations by TRM Labs, Elliptic, and Chainalysis have linked to North Korea. This hack is now the biggest DeFi exploit of 2026. This pattern of attacks leads to a serious question: is Solana’s speed and efficiency somehow being used against it?

(SOURCE: TradingView)
Can SOL USD Hold Ground After Two North Korean Strikes in Eight Days?
Exact price data for SOL over the last 24 hours isn’t currently available. However, information from the blockchain shows what happened: A recent attack on Drift, which took about 10 seconds and involved tricking people, manipulating data feeds, and using pre-approved transactions, resulted in stolen funds being quickly converted into USDC and SOL. These funds were then moved to Ethereum, which caused a noticeable drop in SOL’s price at a time when the overall crypto market was already facing economic instability.
Solana could struggle if more security breaches are discovered or if investigations by firms like TRM Labs and Elliptic lead exchanges to halt trading. However, the situation might be contained because the Solana Foundation is already working on security improvements, and the quick response from the team at Stabble likely prevented wider problems this time.
$SOL is forming a textbook bearish flag and the breakdown has already started.
Last move: consolidation → breakdown → -54% drop Now the same structure is repeating again.
If this continues, $SOL could be heading toward the $45 zone.
This isn’t random price action it’s a…
— Crypto Lens (@crypto_lens_) April 9, 2026
For things to look really positive, Stabble needs a clean audit and there can’t be any new hacking incidents linked to North Korea. However, that’s a risky expectation, considering reports that North Korea stole $2 billion in cryptocurrency just in 2025 – about 60% of all crypto hacking that year. The recent ‘Drift’ hack, which was a major event second only to the $326 million ‘Wormhole’ breach, has made everyone much more cautious about the risks involved in this ecosystem.
As an analyst, I’ve been following the recent Drift attack closely. Elliptic’s assessment that this is part of an ongoing, state-sponsored campaign by North Korea – specifically to fund weapons programs – is critical. This isn’t just some random hacker; it’s a nation-state actor. That changes how we need to think about potential downside risks when evaluating investments within the Solana ecosystem. We need to model ‘tail risk’ – the chance of extreme, negative events – very differently when we know a sophisticated, well-funded adversary is involved.
DISCOVER: Best Crypto to Buy Right Now
Bitcoin Hyper Positions as Solana Speed Meets Bitcoin-Grade Security
The recent issue with Stabble highlights a growing problem: while SOL USD offers fast transactions, its reliance on manual processes has proven vulnerable to attacks, happening for the second time this week.
Despite its drawbacks – like slow speeds, high costs, and limited functionality – Bitcoin’s core system has never been compromised by a national government. Bitcoin Hyper aims to change that by addressing this vulnerability and offering a more secure system.
Bitcoin Hyper is a new technology built on top of Bitcoin, designed to make transactions faster and cheaper. It uses the Solana Virtual Machine and aims for near-instant confirmation times. Importantly, it maintains security by relying on the original Bitcoin network – a network that has notably avoided attacks from even sophisticated hackers like those from North Korea.
The project has secured $32 million in funding during a presale, where each token costs $0.0136783. Early investors can also earn rewards by staking their tokens. Its core technology features a system for securely transferring Bitcoin and utilizes fast processing speeds similar to Solana, combining Bitcoin’s security with enhanced performance.
Visit the Bitcoin Hyper Presale Website Here.
EXPLORE: Best Solana Meme Coins to Buy Right Now
Read More
- Gold Rate Forecast
- Brent Oil Forecast
- GBP EUR PREDICTION
- USD ARS PREDICTION
- Silver Rate Forecast
- USD JPY PREDICTION
- GBP JPY PREDICTION
- CNY JPY PREDICTION
- Bitcoin Price Prediction: Is $60K Inevitable for BTC Amid Market Weakness?
- 🤖🇰🇵 North Korea’s AI Shenanigans: Crypto Heists Gone Wild! 🤑
2026-04-09 19:06