NORTH Korea–linked hacking groups stole more cryptocurrency than anyone else in 2025. They siphoned off more than $2 billion. Their operations became fewer, but they were more targeted and had a higher impact, according to new research.
North Korean hackers stole about $2.02 billion worth of digital assets from January through early December. This is up 51 per cent from a year earlier. The global blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said this in a report released this week.
The findings, part of Chainalysis’s annual overview of crypto crime, show global cryptocurrency theft reached about $3.4 billion this year, with North Korean operations accounting for nearly 60pc of the total. That pushed North Korea’s cumulative cryptocurrency theft to roughly $6.75 billion, the report showed.
While the overall number of hacking incidents linked to North Korea fell 74pc from 2024, their impact grew sharply. North Korean groups accounted for a record 76pc of all service-level compromises. This excludes personal wallet hacks. This underscores a shift toward fewer but significantly larger breaches.
Chainalysis said the divergence has become more pronounced over time. Non–North Korean attackers showed a relatively even distribution across theft sizes this year. In contrast, North Korean operations dominated the highest-value ranges.
“When North Korean hackers strike, they target large services and aim for maximum impact,” the report said. Their tactics reflect a move away from exploiting decentralized finance vulnerabilities toward centralized exchanges and custodians as DeFi security improves. The $1.5 billion breach occurred at Dubai-based exchange Bybit in February. It is the largest crypto heist on record and illustrates the scale of that approach.
The report pointed to insider infiltration as a key driver behind North Korea’s ability to execute such high-value thefts.
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