Lawyers demand the return of frozen crypto assets to victims of a 25-year-old incident., 2026/05/03 10:41:02

The American law firm Gerstein Harrow has requested the court to transfer approximately $71 million in frozen crypto assets to them. These funds may be linked to the North Korean hacking group Lazarus and the April breach of the KelpDAO protocol, as suggested by anonymous blockchain researcher ZachXBT.

ZachXBT believes that the lawsuit could hinder the compensation process for the direct victims of the breach. 

The law firm is seeking around 30,766 ETH. Gerstein Harrow is relying on a 2015 court ruling from a class-action lawsuit against North Korea, which was filed following the abduction and murder of South Korean pastor Kim Dong-shik in 2000. According to the 2015 ruling, North Korea is obligated to compensate the pastor’s family — a requirement that remains unfulfilled. Gerstein Harrow argues that since the hack of the crypto protocol was orchestrated by a group linked to the North Korean authorities, these assets are associated with North Korea and therefore should be paid out under the “pastor’s case.” 

ZachXBT contends that the 2015 ruling is not directly relevant to the 2026 breach, and the actions of the firm are unethical and detrimental to the victims of the KelpDAO incident. The investigator described Gerstein Harrow’s strategy as predatory, as the firm attempts to prioritize its clients for compensation by leveraging old cases that are not directly connected to the April incident.

This is a predatory US law firm with a strategy that is pure evil.

Whenever there’s a new Lazarus Group victim after an exploit and crypto assets get frozen.

These clowns come in say they have a claim for an alleged DPRK victim from 26 years ago that has zero relation to… pic.twitter.com/FuazOD2Q7E

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) May 2, 2026

The blockchain researcher proposed the establishment of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) to coordinate the filing of a lawsuit against the law firm. 

On April 18, the Lazarus hacking group, associated with North Korea, exploited a vulnerability in the LayerZero V2 bridge and extracted approximately $290 million from the KelpDAO protocol. The Arbitrum security council took emergency measures and froze $30,766 ETH in a wallet believed to belong to the attackers. 

Over the past nine years, the total value of cryptocurrencies stolen by North Korean hackers has exceeded $6 billion, according to experts from the cybersecurity platform TRM Labs. In just the first four months of this year, the amount of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korean hacking groups increased by approximately $577 million, as reported by blockchain security specialists.