North Korean hackers posing as American tech entrepreneurs quietly registered companies in New York and New Mexico as part of a campaign to compromise developers in the crypto industry, security firm Silent Push said Thursday.

Two businesses, Blocknovas and Softglide, were created using fictitious identities and addresses. The operation is tied to a subgroup within the Lazarus Group.

The North Korean-backed hacking unit has stolen billions worth of crypto in the past years using sophisticated techniques and strategies that target unsuspecting individuals or companies.

“This is a rare example of North Korean hackers actually managing to set up legal corporate entities in the US in order to create corporate fronts used to attack unsuspecting job applicants,” said Kasey Best, director of threat intelligence at Silent Push, said.

The hackers’ playbook is as manipulative as it is effective: use fake LinkedIn-style profiles and job postings to lure crypto developers into interviews. Then, during the recruitment process, they are tricked into downloading malware disguised as job application tools.

Silent Push identified multiple victims of the operation, especially those contacted through Blocknovas, which researchers say was the most active of the three front companies. The firm’s listed address in South Carolina appears to be an empty lot, while Softglide was registered through a tax office in Buffalo, New York.

The firm added that the malware used in the campaign includes at least three virus strains previously tied to North Korean cyber units. These programs can steal data, provide remote access to infected systems, and serve as entry points for additional spyware or ransomware.

The FBI has seized the Blocknovas domain, per Reuters. A notice posted to the site states it was taken down “as part of a law enforcement action against North Korean cyber actors who utilised this domain to deceive individuals with fake job postings and distribute malware.”

Arbitrum (ARB) was set to make a splash.

The Layer 2 network, home to a growing number of decentralized AI platforms, was preparing to announce a milestone: it had been named Nvidia’s exclusive Ethereum partner for the chipmaker’s new Ignition AI Accelerator, an offshoot of its Inception program that supports promising AI startups with infrastructure credits and mentorship.

Then came the pivot.

“We received some last-minute comms from Nvidia requesting to pause the announcement, however, they didn’t provide any specific details as to why,” a spokesperson told CoinDesk in an email.

It’s a telling moment, and a reminder that despite crypto’s continued efforts to align with the booming AI sector, Nvidia’s programs still explicitly exclude crypto-related projects. A quick look at the Inception Accelerator’s criteria (Ignition is an offshoot of it, given the Inception badge on its site) shows a clear disqualifier: cryptocurrency.

This stance isn’t new, and while it may frustrate crypto developers looking to tap into Nvidia’s ecosystem, it reflects a longer history of distance, and occasional disparagement, from the company’s leadership.

Back in 2018, co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang described the fallout from the ICO boom as giving Nvidia a “crypto hangover.” Ethereum’s price collapse left the company saddled with unsold GPU inventory, and Nvidia later paid a $5.5 million fine over how it reported crypto-related revenue impact.

Years later, in a 2023 interview with The Guardian, Nvidia CTO Michael Kagan was more direct: “Crypto doesn’t bring anything useful for society,” he said, adding, “I never believed that [crypto] is something that will do something good for humanity,” contrasting it to AI.

This skepticism has stood in stark contrast to Nvidia’s embrace of artificial intelligence, and occasional tolerance of blockchain.

At the company’s 2024 Graphics Technology Conference, Huang appeared onstage with Illia Polosukhin, co-author of Attention Is All You Need, the paper that introduced Transformer models, which are the foundation for modern AI tools like ChatGPT. While Polosukhin also co-founded the NEAR blockchain, the discussion centered squarely on AI, not crypto.

The closest nod to the industry came when Huang, in characteristically broad strokes, said: “We got programmable humans, we got programmable proteins, we got programmable money.” The remark, likely rhetorical, wasn’t a signal of support for crypto, despite the AI token bulls, and indeed not of any strategic shift.

Even though Nvidia has been clear on its position about crypto, some in the industry continue to interpret moments like these as cracks in the door, a potential softening that might eventually lead to inclusion. But with crypto still formally excluded from Nvidia’s flagship programs and the company declining to comment on its current stance, the door appears just as firmly shut.

For now, Nvidia’s message seems clear: crypto’s not invited.

Crypto majors were little changed over the past 24 hours as markets settled from a rally, and then profit-taking from earlier in the week. Bitcoin (BTC) traded above $93,000 in Asian morning hours Friday, with traders pointing to increased optimism of short-term gains.

“With BTC holding firmly above $90K, sentiment is becoming increasingly optimistic,” QCP Capital said in a Telegram broadcast. “Call options at $95K strikes for end-April and end-May expiries have dominated flow, pointing to a tactical appetite for further upside.”

Call options are contracts giving the buyer the right to purchase an asset at a set price before a deadline. A flurry of call option buying activity indicates traders are betting bitcoin’s price will exceed $95,000 by late April or May — a tradeable signal for retail traders.

“Still, with macro risks temporarily subdued and trade tensions cooling, BTC is likely to consolidate in a narrow $90K–$94.5K range while awaiting a decisive push toward the elusive $100K mark,” the firm said, reiterating its tone of remaining “cautious” as market sentiment hinges on macroeconomic factors.

Among majors, XRP, BNB Chain’s BNB stayed flat and Solana’s SOL showed a 2% bump. Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano’s ADA zoomed more than 4%, while shiba inu (SHIB) added 5%.

The broad-based CoinDesk 20, a liquid index tracking the largest tokens by market capitalization, rose 1.2%.

Outside of majors, Sui Network’s SUI continued a multiday rally to bring weekly gains to over 62%. Catalysts include the ecosystem company xPortal, which is releasing a payment card that runs on the Mastercard network. 

https://x.com/SuiNetwork/status/1915395312111530191

Data from DefiLlama shows that the total value locked (TVL) on the Sui Network has exceeded $1.6 billion, an increase of over 9% in the past 24 hours.

Additionally, the decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Sui Network has seen its 24-hour trading volume reach $599 million, showing a 35% growth compared to the previous week.