Pepe's Creator Fell into a Trap: Hired a North Korean Hacker and Lost $1 Million

Matt Furie, the artist behind the iconic Pepe, learned a costly lesson about security in Web3. His collaboration with Chainsaw to launch NFT collections ended in disaster after he accidentally hired a member of the Lazarus hacking group as an IT employee.

The story doesn’t end there. Favrr made a similar mistake by hiring the same hacker as CTO, resulting in combined losses of $1 million.

The Concerning Part: Absolute Security Negligence

ZachXBT has been warning about the alarming increase in North Korea’s activity in crypto. Lazarus, responsible for the biggest hack in cryptocurrency history, remains actively operational. Yet:

• Chainsaw issued a vague warning and then deleted it
• Matt Furie remained completely silent
• Both disabled direct messages on X (Twitter)

Only Favrr issued a public statement. ZachXBT tried to contact all parties but was ignored.

The Uncomfortable Reality

This incident exposes a brutal truth: while NFT projects struggle for legitimacy, many ignore basic security protocols. Hiring without thoroughly verifying digital backgrounds isn’t just negligence—it’s corporate irresponsibility.

The question everyone should be asking: how many other projects are making the same mistakes?