ZachXBT Exposes US Law Firm Gerstein Harrow’s $71M Grab of Stolen Lazarus Funds
Key Takeaways: The frustration within the crypto community is compounded by what the tactic achieves in practice as it clogs the legal recovery process, buys time for hackers to move remaining funds, and leaves genuine victims waiting. ZachXBT separately proposed that the community form a decentralized autonomous organization ( DAO) to take coordinated legal action against the firm, a suggestion that drew immediate and widespread support. The broader context makes the scheme especially troubling, given that North Korea’s Lazarus Group has stolen over $6 billion in crypto since 2017, accounting for 76% of all crypto hack losses recorded so far in 2026. The KelpDAO exploit is the second major Lazarus operation within weeks, with roughly $285 million taken from Drift Protocol in early April. As the KelpDAO fallout continues, the exploitation of frozen asset pools with unrelated legal claims introduces a new and troubling dimension to the hack recovery problem, one that will play out in courtrooms, not just on the blockchain. Whether the frozen $71 million ultimately reaches actual KelpDAO victims or gets diverted through the courts remains unresolved.A Growing Legal Front in the Hack Wars
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