Summary
Stake.com is a Curaçao-licensed cryptocurrency gambling and sports betting platform co-founded in 2017 by Australians Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, operating as one of the largest crypto casinos globally with reported 2024 revenue of $4.7 billion. On September 4, 2023, the platform suffered a critical security breach in which approximately $41.35 million in cryptocurrency was drained from its hot wallets across Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Polygon networks; the FBI formally attributed the attack to North Korea's Lazarus Group (APT38) within 48 hours. Stake.com restored full operations within five hours of the incident and stated that user funds were not affected, though the root cause — a likely hot wallet private key compromise — has never been officially confirmed by the company.
Connected Entities
1 entities · 1 linked investigationConnected Through
1 shared actor · 1 investigationDistinct actors this investigation shares with others — holders, traders, and named parties. Shared infrastructure (exchanges, pools) is excluded.
- □Stake.comorganizationalso inStake.com·38
Timeline(9 events)
2013-01-01
Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani launch Primedice, a cryptocurrency dice game, establishing their first crypto gambling venture.
2016-01-01
Craven and Tehrani found Easygo, an online casino games studio, as the corporate precursor to Stake.com.
2017-08-01
Stake.com launched as a crypto casino and sports betting platform under Curaçao license, operated by Medium Rare N.V.
2023-09-04
Stake.com hot wallets on Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Polygon drained of approximately $41.35 million in a multi-chain attack detected internally within 20 minutes.
2023-09-04
Stake.com restores full deposit and withdrawal operations approximately five hours after the breach; Ed Craven states user funds are safe.
2023-09-06
FBI issues formal press release attributing the $41 million theft to North Korea's Lazarus Group (APT38), publishing 40 associated blockchain addresses.
2023-09-07
TRM Labs publishes on-chain analysis corroborating FBI attribution, documenting multi-chain laundering patterns consistent with Lazarus Group TTPs.
2023-09-10
Ed Craven publishes post-incident reflections on Medium; states private keys were not directly compromised and that Stake absorbed the loss without material operational impact.
2024-12-24
Curaçao's new National Ordinance on Games of Chance (LOK) enters into force, replacing the sublicense model and introducing direct CGA supervision of operators including Stake.com.
Decision Log
- hash: 53rNTALEv3X9ki3o99jgx8nMfdmRFwksohkvPVYcrekk
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-sonnet-4-6
generated: 5/4/2026, 2:54:38 AM
last updated: 5/20/2026, 6:22:05 PM
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