Over $2 billion in cryptocurrencies. North Korean hackers steal heavily

North Korean hackers have stolen cryptocurrencies worth more than $2 billion this year, according to the American analytical company Elliptic. This is the highest amount stolen in a year so far, UPI noted on Wednesday.

Elliptic's report shows that this amount is the result of over 30 hacker attacks. The biggest profit for hackers came from the attack on the Bybit cryptocurrency exchange – nearly $1.5 billion was stolen.

Other attacks publicly attributed to North Korea in 2025 include the theft of $14 million from nine users of the WOO X cryptocurrency exchange in July and the theft of $1.2 million worth of tokens from blockchain financing platform Seedify in September.

Although North Korea remains subject to tough international sanctions, in recent years the country has increasingly resorted to hacking and cybertheft to finance its missile and nuclear programs, UPI recalled. Last year's UN Security Council panel of experts estimated that Pyongyang financed 40 percent of its weapons programs through “illegal cyber means”.

“We are aware of many other thefts that have some features in common with activities related to North Korea, but we lack sufficient evidence to clearly attribute them (to Pyongyang – PAP),” the report reads. “The remaining thefts were probably not reported and remain unknown,” it added.

Elliptic noted that tThe tactics used by North Korean hackers are evolving. While previous attacks focused on exploiting vulnerabilities in cryptographic infrastructure, most attacks today are carried out by tricking or manipulating users into gaining access to their digital assets.

“This change shows that the weak point in cryptocurrency security is increasingly human, not technical,” experts emphasized. (PAP)

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