Tue, 07 Oct 2025

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 North Korean hackers increasingly targeting wealthy crypto holders

Analysts estimate cyber-criminals linked to Pyongyang have taken more than $2bn so far in 2025.

* North Korean hackers have stolen over $2bn (£1.49bn) from crypto holders so far this year, a record according to researchers.
* The regime-linked hackers now account for around 13% of North Korea's GDP, according to UN estimates.
* Investigators at Elliptic say that targeting high net worth individuals has become more effective than attacking businesses due to their lack of security measures.
* Stolen funds are used to finance North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development programs.
* The true figure for hacks carried out by North Korea could be even higher as many thefts remain unreported.
* Elliptic estimates that the cumulative known value of cryptoassets stolen by North Korea is over $6bn.
* The worst hack attributed to North Korea so far this year was a February attack on ByBit, which saw $1.4bn stolen.
* More than 30 attacks have been attributed to North Korea this year, including an attack on WOO X in July and another on Seedify.
* The highest theft of cryptocurrency from an individual this year is $100m.
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