North Korean hackers have hit an infernal milestone of stealing $2.02 billion of crypto in 2025, which is nearly 60% of the total $3.4 billion reported crypto thefts this year. According to Chainalysis, the rogue state has stolen a total of $6.75 billion in cryptocurrency since records began — at least in known value. The biggest loss of the year was the $1.5 billion ByBit hack, with the FBI saying that it was executed by actors from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), accounting for almost 75% of the amount stolen by the country.
The DPRK is using operations like this to fund its coffers, especially as it still reels from international sanctions. One of North Korea’s techniques for breaking into crypto systems is to have its operatives pose as IT professionals and embed them among the employees of its potential targets. Aside from making money for the regime, like the infiltrator who was caught by Amazon because of the latency of their keystrokes, they also prepare the way for the attack, gaining privileged access and looking for vulnerabilities.
