Crypto
Bitrefill blames North Korea-linked Lazarus hacker group for compromising 18,500 purchase records
Cryptocurrency payments and gift card platform Bitrefill has blamed the North Korea-linked hacking group Lazarus for a cyberattack on March 1, 2026, that compromised parts of its infrastructure and cryptocurrency wallets.
The attackers gained access to production keys, transferred funds from hot wallets, and exposed 18,500 purchase records containing emails, payment addresses, and IP addresses.
Approximately 1,000 records included encrypted usernames. Affected users were notified. Operations have resumed, with the company announcing to cover losses from operational capital. The incident underscores the importance of vigilance regarding crypto and on-chain security.
The modus operandi included malware, on-chain tracing and reused IP and email addresses and was similar to previous attacks attributed to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, also known as Bluenoroff, the company said in a detailed report on X.
The Lazarus Group has previously targeted crypto projects including Ronin Network, Harmony’s Horizon Bridge, WazirX, and Atomic Wallet.
How the attack unfolded
It all began with with a compromised employee laptop, which exposed legacy credentials and allowed attackers to access Bitrefill’s broader infrastructure, including parts of its database and cryptocurrency wallets.
The breach quickly became apparent when the company noticed unusual purchasing patterns among certain suppliers, signaling that attackers were exploiting its gift card inventory and supply chains. The firm also noted that attackers were draining some hot wallets and moving funds to their own addresses, following which, the system was taken offline to contain the damage.
“Bitrefill operates a global e-commerce business with dozens of suppliers, thousands of products, and multiple payment methods across many countries. Safely switching all these things off and bringing them back online is not trivial,” the company said in a statement.
Since the incident, Bitrefill has been working with security researchers, incident response teams, on-chain analysts, and law enforcement to investigate the breach.
Customer data impact
Hackers accessed a small set of purchase records, approximately 18,500, containing
Bitrefill said there is no evidence that customer data was a primary target. Its logs indicate that attackers ran a limited number of queries aimed at cryptocurrency holdings and gift card inventory rather than extracting the entire database.
The platform stores minimal personal data and does not require mandatory KYC. A small subset of purchase records, approximately 18,500, was accessed, containing information such as email addresses, crypto payment addresses, and metadata including IP addresses. About 1,000 records contained encrypted names for specific products; the company is treating this data as potentially compromised and has notified affected customers directly by email.
At present, Bitrefill does not believe customers need to take any additional action, though it advises caution regarding unexpected communications related to Bitrefill or cryptocurrency.
Steps to strengthen security
In response to the breach, Bitrefill said it has already strengthened its cybersecurity practices and is working to draw lessons from the incident.
The company outlined several measures, including conducting comprehensive penetration tests with external experts, tightening internal access controls, enhancing logging and monitoring for faster threat detection, and refining incident response procedures and automated shutdown protocols.
Looking forward
Bitrefill acknowledged that this was its first major attack in more than a decade of operation but stressed that it remains well-funded and profitable, capable of absorbing operational losses. Most systems, including payments, stock, and accounts, are back online, with sales volumes returning to normal.
“Getting hit by a sophisticated attack sucks (a lot),” the company said. “But we survived. We will continue to do our best to continue deserving our customers’ trust.”
Key Takeaways:
- Babylon and Gomining announced a Trustless Bitcoin Vault (TBV) integration for up to 1,000 BTC.
- BTC holders earn Gomining mining rewards via Babylon’s vaults without bridging, wrapping, or custody loss.
- Babylon holds 56,853 BTC in staking vaults and raised $15M from a16z crypto in January 2026.
How the Integration Works
Bitcoin owners will be able to lock their BTC into Babylon’s Trustless Bitcoin Vaults (TBV), a mechanism that holds bitcoin on its native blockchain under programmatic rules, without moving it off the Bitcoin network. From there, users can programmatically borrow and self-commit those locked funds to Gomining’s mining products, earning rewards from Gomining’s industrial-scale operations in the form of native bitcoin yield.
The key distinction, per the official announcement, is that users never wrap their BTC into a synthetic token, never bridge it to another chain, and never hand custody to a third party. The bitcoin remains onchain on the network throughout, with vault rules enforced at the protocol level rather than by a centralized operator.
David Tse, co-founder of Babylon, said the integration “extends the reach and adoption of TBV within a Bitcoin-aligned ecosystem,” while Mark Zalan, CEO of Gomining, added that the partnership “extends infrastructure to Bitcoin holders who refuse to compromise on self-custody.”
The initial rollout targets up to 1,000 BTC, approximately $82 million at current prices, committed through the aforementioned vault system.
Why It Matters for Bitcoin DeFi
The persistent challenge in Bitcoin decentralized finance ( DeFi) has been generating yield on BTC without compromising the properties that make it valuable, i.e. self-custody, onchain transparency, and censorship resistance. Wrapped bitcoin solutions, such as WBTC, require trusting a centralized custodian, and cross-chain bridges have repeatedly proven to be attack vectors, accounting for billions in losses across the broader crypto industry.
Babylon has been building around this constraint since its founding. Its staking protocol already holds 56,853 BTC in staking vaults, approximately $5.64 billion at current prices, making it the largest Bitcoin staking protocol by total value locked. The firm raised $15 million from a16z crypto in January 2026 to develop Bitcoin collateral infrastructure.
Crypto
Cryptocurrency companies join Silicon Valley’s wave of layoffs! Coinbase lays off 14% of its workforce; CEO says AI is bringing profound change.
Written by: Dong Jing
Source: Wall Street News
Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, announced layoffs of approximately 14% of its workforce, citing AI as a core driving factor in reshaping its operating model. This is the latest example of a new wave of AI-driven layoffs in Silicon Valley.
Coinbase disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday (May 5) that the layoffs will affect approximately 700 employees, representing more than one-seventh of the company’s nearly 5,000-person team. The company expects to pay approximately $50 million to $60 million in severance pay, severance benefits, and related expenses.
CEO Brian Armstrong posted on social media, “AI is profoundly changing how businesses operate, and we are reshaping Coinbase to lead this new era.” He also cited the continued volatility of the cryptocurrency market as another important reason, stating that the company is “currently in a bear market and needs to adjust its cost structure immediately.”
This news of layoffs places Coinbase among the tech companies that have recently cut staff citing AI as a reason, further demonstrating the profound impact of AI on the employment structure of the tech industry—especially its direct impact on software engineers.
AI-driven restructuring: smaller teams, more “AI agents”
In his statement, Brian Armstrong outlined Coinbase’s future organizational structure: the company will form smaller teams whose members will be responsible for managing AI agents (digital bots) capable of handling programming tasks, while human managers will also need to “work hand-in-hand with the team.”
Armstrong characterized the current moment as a “turning point,” stating that the biggest risk is inaction. He said the company is “making proactive and conscious adjustments to rebuild Coinbase into a lean, fast, AI-native enterprise,” and that the future company structure will reduce management layers below the CEO and COO to improve decision-making efficiency.
This statement aligns closely with the logic of several tech giants recently—the rapid leap in AI tools’ capabilities in code generation is directly impacting software engineers, a core group in digital business.
Silicon Valley AI Layoff Wave: Coinbase is Not an Isolated Case
Coinbase’s layoffs are part of a recent wave of large-scale workforce reductions in the tech industry, citing AI as a reason.
In February of this year, fintech company Block laid off about 40% of its employees, affecting approximately 4,000 people, citing rapid AI iteration as the reason.
Last month, Meta announced plans to lay off about 10% of its employees (about 8,000 people) and close another 6,000 open positions, while the company is investing heavily in AI research and development.
Microsoft also offered early retirement plans to a large number of long-term employees last month to support its major investments in AI.
Analysis points out that although various industries are discussing how AI will change the way we work, the technology industry itself is undoubtedly undergoing profound disruption.
Double pressure: AI transformation coupled with a downturn in the crypto market
Coinbase’s restructuring reflects the dual pressures the company faces.
On the one hand, the rapid evolution of AI technology has prompted management to proactively seek change and accelerate the transformation towards an “AI-native” model; on the other hand, the cyclical fluctuations of the cryptocurrency market have a direct impact on the company’s revenue.
Coinbase has previously stated that its revenue is highly dependent on crypto asset prices and platform trading volume, and its profitability will be significantly pressured during market downturns.
In its statement, Armstrong characterized the layoffs as a proactive rather than reactive measure, emphasizing that the company is using the market downturn to streamline its organization and prepare for the next cycle.
Key Takeaways:
- U.S. bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $532M in net inflows, their third consecutive positive day.
- U.S. ethereum spot ETFs added $61.29M, signaling institutional demand across both assets.
- April’s $2.44B in total spot BTC ETF inflows was the strongest monthly figure since October 2025.
Institutional Buyers Are Not Pulling Back
The three-day streak matters beyond the headline number, especially in crypto ETF markets, where multi-day inflow runs signal that institutional buyers are not treating a price move as a short-term trading event but rather as an accumulation opportunity. Three consecutive days of positive flows at these volumes suggests coordinated conviction rather than one-off positioning.
ETH ETFs have been slower to attract the kind of sustained institutional flows that bitcoin products have drawn since their January 2024 launch. A session where both product types see significant positive flows points to broad-based institutional appetite rather than bitcoin-only positioning.
At current prices, ether sits well below its all-time highs, giving institutional buyers a larger relative discount than bitcoin. Whether that combination of lower price and growing ETF infrastructure can draw sustained inflows (similar to what BTC experienced in October 2025) is the central question analysts are now watching.
It bears mentioning that sustained ETF inflow streaks historically correlate with price continuation. The pattern has been consistent, wherein institutional buying creates steady demand, reduces available supply on exchanges, and compresses the selling pressure that typically follows sharp price moves. Bitcoin’s cross above $81,000 on Tuesday came directly after this accumulation sequence built over the past fortnight.
On Friday, roughly $630 million in net inflows entered the ETF complex ahead of the weekend, buoyed by Fidelity, which added $19 million into its FBTC product. Similarly, Blackrock’s European bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) crossed $1.1 billion in assets under management, holding 14,200 BTC as of May 4.
If the inflow streak extends to a fourth consecutive day, the technical and fundamental case for continued upward price pressure could strengthen considerably.
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