Hackers working for the North Korean government have stolen more than two billion dollars in cryptocurrency so far this year. This information comes from the blockchain analysis firm Elliptic. On Tuesday, the company published a blog post with this new estimate, which it describes as the largest annual total on record, with three months still remaining in the year. The estimate is based on more than thirty hacks that have occurred this year.
The previous record was set in 2022, when North Korea stole one point three five billion dollars. According to Elliptic, the regime’s total amount of stolen cryptocurrency since 2017 is at least six billion dollars. The company also stated that this figure may still be an underestimate.
Elliptic noted that attributing cyber thefts to North Korea is not an exact science. The company is aware of many other thefts that share characteristics of North Korean activity but lack sufficient evidence for a definitive attribution. Other thefts are likely unreported and remain unknown.
The company said that North Korea’s main targets are still cryptocurrency exchanges, but the regime’s hackers are also beginning to target high-net-worth individuals who own large amounts of cryptocurrency. This is not the only recent change in their methods.
The majority of the hacks in 2025 have been carried out through social engineering attacks. In these attacks, hackers deceive or manipulate individuals to gain access to cryptocurrency. This marks a shift from earlier attacks, which often exploited technical flaws in crypto infrastructure. This change highlights that the weak point in cryptocurrency security is increasingly human rather than technical.
Elliptic’s estimate appears consistent with those from other organizations. Last year, the United Nations Security Council estimated that North Korean hackers stole three billion dollars in cryptocurrency between 2017 and 2023. Adding Elliptic’s estimates for this year’s two billion dollars and last year’s seven hundred forty-two point eight million dollars brings the total close to the six billion dollar figure.
The governments of Japan, South Korea, and the United States have also accused North Korean hackers of stealing more than six hundred fifty-nine million dollars in 2024, which is roughly the same as Elliptic’s figure for that year. The United Nations believes the regime led by Kim Jong-un uses the stolen cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear weapons program.
This year’s record was fueled mostly by a massive theft of more than one point four billion dollars from the crypto exchange Bybit. The FBI, along with several blockchain monitoring firms and researchers, attributed this heist to North Korea.
Other victims of North Korea’s hackers in the cryptocurrency world over the years include the play-to-earn game Axie Infinity, which lost six hundred twenty-five million dollars in 2022, the crypto startup Harmony, which lost one hundred million dollars in 2022, and the crypto exchange WazirX, which lost two hundred thirty-five million dollars in 2024, among many others.