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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Justin McCurry in Tokyo

North Korea behind $1.5bn hack of crypto exchange ByBit, says FBI

A price chart on the Bybit website for the cryptocurrency Ethereum is seen on a computer screen in New York on Friday evening, 21 February, 2025.
A price chart on the Bybit website. The FBI has said North Korea was behind the hacking of the ByBit cryptocurrency exchange, stealing $1.5bn in virtual assets. Photograph: Patrick Sison/AP

North Korea was behind the theft of approximately $1.5bn in virtual assets from a cryptocurrency exchange, the FBI has said, in what is being described as the biggest heist in history.

The haul, which reportedly has since lost some of its value, exceeded the previous record sum of $1bn stolen by the dictator Saddam Hussein from Iraq’s central bank before the 2003 war, and underlines the North’s growing expertise in cybercrime.

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