Self-custodial; 2023 breach, case dismissed

Atomic Wallet Referral Code

Q: What happened to Atomic Wallet in 2023?

In early June 2023 roughly $100 million in cryptocurrency was taken from its users. Blockchain analysis firm Elliptic attributed the incident to the Lazarus Group, the state-sponsored North Korean hacking operation, though alternative attributions were later argued. Affected users included people who reported losing life savings.

Q: What happened to the lawsuit?

A class action alleged the company and its chief executive had known of security vulnerabilities since at least 2022 and failed to protect user assets. On 10 September 2024 US District Judge Philip Brimmer dismissed it for lack of personal jurisdiction, finding the defendants' contacts with the forum state insufficient, and unusually also denied the plaintiffs leave to amend.

Q: Does the dismissal mean Atomic Wallet was cleared?

No — and it does not mean the opposite either. A dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction means a court concluded it had no authority to hear the claim against those defendants at all. The allegations were never tested. Anyone describing the ruling as clearing the company, or as proving negligence, is reading a jurisdictional decision as a verdict.

Q: Is not "not your keys, not your coins" the answer?

It is half the rule. Handing assets to a custodial platform does take on that platform's solvency risk. But self-custody does not end the analysis — it removes counterparty risk and replaces it with software risk, since your funds now depend on the correctness of code you cannot audit, and with the absence of practical recourse. This case shows the second half plainly: users lost around $100 million and there was no forum in which the claim could even be heard.

Q: So which is safer, self-custody or a custodian?

They are two different risk profiles rather than a safe option and a dangerous one. A custodial failure at least produces an insolvency process with some recovery percentage, however poor. A self-custodial software failure may produce nothing at all, with no regulator holding authority and no compensation scheme in existence. Choose deliberately and know which risks you have accepted.

Q: What practical steps reduce the risk?

Prefer widely-used, independently audited software and check when the last audit was and who performed it. Keep long-term holdings separate from anything you transact with, since the overwhelming majority of losses hit hot everyday wallets. Update promptly, because disclosed vulnerabilities become exploited ones quickly. And assume no recourse — then decide how much you are willing to hold on that basis, which for most people is less than they currently do.

Atomic Wallet users lost about $100m — and the lawsuit was dismissed before anyone examined the merits

Atomic Wallet is a self-custodial multi-currency cryptocurrency wallet. In June 2023 around $100 million was taken from its users in an incident blockchain analysts attributed to the Lazarus Group.

Browse Referral Codes Submit Your Code

Works in USA, UK +52 more Free Signup

$100OFF

$100 Max Reward

USA, UK +52 more Available In

Web, Android, iOS Platform

Genie Says

Around $100 million was taken from Atomic Wallet users in June 2023, attributed by Elliptic to the Lazarus Group. The resulting class action alleged the company had known of vulnerabilities since at least 2022, and on 10 September 2024 Judge Philip Brimmer dismissed it for lack of personal jurisdiction, denying leave to amend — so the merits were never tested. That is not a finding either way, and reading it as a verdict in either direction is wrong. The case corrects a slogan: "not your keys, not your coins" is only half a rule, because self-custody removes counterparty risk and substitutes software risk plus, frequently, no practical recourse at all. Custody and self-custody are two risk profiles, not a dangerous option and a safe one.

How much can you earn?

Share your own code and earn rewards when friends use it

Verify current terms in-app. No referral reward changes the analysis above.per successful referral*

Submit Your Code Now

Top Atomic Wallet Referral Codes

No referral codes yet. Be the first to share yours and start earning!

Add Your Referral Code

How to Use an Atomic Wallet Referral Code

Know what happened

Around $100 million taken from users in June 2023, attributed by Elliptic to the Lazarus Group.

Read the dismissal correctly

Dismissed 10 September 2024 for lack of personal jurisdiction, leave to amend denied. Not a finding either way — the merits were never reached.

Separate long-term holdings from spending ones

Most losses hit hot everyday wallets. Value you intend to keep for years should not sit alongside value you transact with.

Assume no recourse and size accordingly

Decide how much you will hold where, if the software fails, there is realistically nobody to sue and nobody to pay you back.

Reward Details

Your Reward: Verify current terms in-app. ⚠️ Read the 2023 incident and its legal outcome before acting on any offer.
Referrer Reward: Verify current terms in-app. No referral reward changes the analysis above.
Minimum Purchase: Verify current terms.
Validity: Verify current terms.
Available In: USA, UK, India, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, China, Brazil, Italy, Spain, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Poland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, New Zealand, Greece, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Qatar
Referral Limit: Verify current terms.
Payout Time: Verify current terms.
Eligibility: ⚠️ Around $100m was taken from users in June 2023; the resulting class action was dismissed on 10 September 2024 for lack of personal jurisdiction, with leave to amend denied. The allegations were never tested on their merits.

Why Choose Atomic Wallet?

Self-custody is a different risk, not the absence of risk

It removes counterparty risk and substitutes software risk plus, very often, no practical recourse.

A jurisdictional dismissal is not a verdict

It means the court found it had no authority to hear the claim — not that the allegations were false.

There is no compensation scheme

A custodial failure at least yields an insolvency process with a recovery percentage. Here there was not even that.

Referring a wallet is not like referring a shop

You are recommending where someone keeps money, in a category with no safety net. Point them at the facts.

About Atomic Wallet

This page leads with the 2023 incident rather than the referral, because no reward is worth more than knowing what happened and how it ended.

**In early June 2023, roughly $100 million in cryptocurrency was taken from users of Atomic Wallet.** Blockchain analysis firm **Elliptic** attributed the incident to the **Lazarus Group**, the state-sponsored North Korean hacking operation, though alternative attributions were subsequently argued. Affected users included people who reported losing life savings.

**A class action followed.** It alleged that Atomic Wallet and its chief executive **had known of security vulnerabilities since at least 2022** and had failed to take adequate measures to protect user assets and data.

**On 10 September 2024 that case was dismissed** — by **US District Judge Philip Brimmer**, on the ground that the court **lacked personal jurisdiction** over the defendants, the contacts with the forum state being insufficient. Unusually, the plaintiffs were **also denied leave to amend**.

**⚠️ Read that outcome precisely, because it is routinely misreported in both directions.** A dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction is **not a finding that the company did anything wrong**, and it is **not a finding that it did not.** It means a US court concluded it had no authority to hear the claim against those defendants at all. **The allegations were never tested.** Anyone who tells you the case "cleared" Atomic Wallet, or that it "proved" negligence, is reading a jurisdictional ruling as a verdict.

**What this establishes is the thing worth carrying to every other wallet, and it corrects a slogan the whole industry repeats.**

"Not your keys, not your coins" is true as far as it goes: hand your assets to a custodial platform and you take on that platform's solvency risk, as our YouHodler page in this batch sets out. But the slogan is presented as though self-custody were the end of the analysis, and it is not. **Self-custody removes counterparty risk and replaces it with two other things:**

**Software risk.** Your funds now depend on the correctness of a particular piece of code — its key generation, its storage, its update mechanism, its dependencies. You are unlikely to be able to audit any of that, and you are relying on the developer as completely as a custodial user relies on a custodian, just along a different axis.
**No practical recourse.** This is the part almost nobody prices in, and this case demonstrates it plainly. **When a self-custodial wallet's users lose $100 million, there may be no forum in which to obtain a remedy** — because the entity is foreign, because jurisdiction fails, because there is no regulator with authority and no compensation scheme of any kind. A custodial failure at least produces an insolvency process with a recovery percentage, however poor. Here there was not even that.

**So the honest formulation, which this project will now use everywhere:** self-custody and custody are **two different risk profiles, not a safe option and a dangerous one.** Choose deliberately, and know which risks you have accepted.

**What to actually do, whichever wallet you use:**

**Prefer widely-used, independently audited software**, and check when the last audit was and who performed it.
**Keep long-term holdings separate from anything you transact with.** The overwhelming majority of losses hit hot, everyday wallets. Value you intend to keep for years should not be in the same place as value you spend.
**Update promptly**, since disclosed vulnerabilities become exploited vulnerabilities quickly.
**Assume no recourse.** Decide how much you are willing to hold under a system where, if the software fails, there is realistically nobody to sue and nobody to pay you back. **For most people that number is smaller than the amount they are currently holding.**

**On the referral:** whatever it pays, it cannot be evaluated separately from the above. Referring someone to a wallet is not like referring them to a shop — you are recommending where they keep money, in a category with no compensation scheme. **Point them at the incident and the dismissal and let them decide.** That is worth more to them than any bonus is worth to you.