How Crypto Is Fighting Back Against North Korea | The Breakdown

North Korea has had IT workers embedded in DeFi protocols since DeFi Summer — and they’re pretty good devs. Nick Bax, blockchain investigator and SEAL 911 incident responder, joins us to break down how crypto crime has evolved from SIM swaps to nation-state social engineering. We unpack the Monero inflation bug, Arbitrum’s 9/12 multisig gold standard, how DPRK workers now use facilitators to rent real identities, and what it actually takes to break into onchain investigation. Enjoy! __ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introduction 02:01 DeFi is Under Attack 03:11 Contagion Onchain 04:40 Nexo Ad 05:16 Nick Bax Interview 06:40 Incident Response Triage 08:43 Preemptive Due Diligence 10:20 From SIM Swaps To Remote Access 13:45 Multisig Best Practices 14:37 AI Speeds Up Attacks 15:36 Nexo Ad 17:14 Decentralization Tradeoffs 19:17 Monero Bug Hard Fork 20:05 Trusting Multisig Guardians 21:05 Two Of Five Risks 22:00 DeFi Decentralization Debate 23:41 Proactive Threat Hunting 25:25 DPRK Worker Red Flags 27:32 Security Teams And Intel 30:21 Thorchain And Laundering 33:26 Whack A Mole Reality 35:31 Becoming Onchain Investigator 37:06 Closing Thoughts FOLLOW GUEST › Nick Bax — https://x.com/bax1337 FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW SPONSORS › NEXO Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges. Get started at http://nexo.com/breakdown Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to the Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ DISCLAIMER As always, remember this podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely their opinions, not financial advice.