Crypto
How to recover stolen cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency-related crimes are on the rise and unsuspecting victims are paying the price.
Recovering stolen crypto is not impossible and heavily depends on the circumstances of each case.
Peggy Herbert lost $34,000 to a crypto-ATM scam but authorities were able to halt the transaction and recover her money.
But this isn’t always the case especially when crypto has been removed from your wallet.
“They can funnel the funds through mixers or blenders, where it will be very difficult for us to trace the actual funds of the clients to a specific wallet,” Bezalel Eithan Raviv said.
Raviv is the CEO of Lionsgate Network, a blockchain analysis firm in Israel. He describes himself as a digital crime stopper who works with authorities to track down lost cryptocurrency.
“With our technology, it doesn’t matter who targeted you, what matters is that we are able to trace your money to suspect wallet and freeze that wallet with law enforcement collaboration,” Raviv said.
He says many crypto investors fall prey to fake investment websites. Dummy platforms look legitimate and mimic existing platforms, but they are just fronts to gather your personal information and take your money.
It can appear like you are investing, but the money is going to a scammer.
Raviv says the best way to avoid this is to do your research on the platform before you use it.
“You’d have to research the company, the EIN, the location of the company, their social media pages, to see who the CEO is, who is the founder, who is (in) the board of directors, you have to really become an investigator to understand who’s behind the scenes,” Raviv explains.
He suggests using well-known and reputable cryptocurrency exchanges. If you aren’t familiar with the site, check if the site is listed on trusted directories. Pay attention, look for misspellings and strange URLs.
“If you are able to become aware of their tactics behind the scenes, it’s the best defense from being targeted,” Raviv said.
It is also helpful to avoid unsolicited offers to invest in crypto from people you don’t know. Often, scammers will reach out on social media or through email. These could be phishing attempts. If you think you’ve been the victim of a crypto scam, you can call local law enforcement and reach out to the FBI Internet Crime Center.
Dec. 18 (UPI) — North Korea topped its own world record for cryptocurrency theft with a $2.02 billion haul in 2025, which accounted for about 60% of the world’s $3.4 billion in crypto thefts.
North Korea’s stolen crypto this year totaled $720 million and is 51% more than North Korea’s then-record $1.3 billion take in 2024. It raises to $6.75 billion its total in cryptocurrency thefts in recent years, according to a report released on Thursday by blockchain data provider Chainalysis.
Much of this year’s stolen cryptocurrency occurred when hackers working for North Korea’s hacking team in February pilfered some $1.5 billion worth of mostly ethereum cryptocurrency from Dubai-based exchange Bybit, NBC News reported.
The $1.5 billion Bybit theft set a world record for the most stolen in a single incident.
The North Korean hackers operate from the relative safety of a nation that mostly is closed to the outside world.
“It’s very difficult to stop, because there’s an asymmetry where they’re in general so cut off from the world and such a rogue state,” Matt Pearl, Center for Strategic and International Studies’ director of its Strategic Technologies Program, told NBC News.
North Korean hackers managed to steal more cryptocurrency this year despite carrying out fewer attacks, often with the help of IT workers within cryptocurrency services providers or through the use of impersonation tactics that target crypto executives, Chainalysis reported.
Once the cryptocurrencies are stolen online, North Korea’s hackers prefer to launder the proceeds through money laundering services that use the Chinese language, according to Chainalysis.
They also use bridge services and mixing protocols and take about 45 days to launder their stolen cryptocurrency after a particular theft.
A similar report in October by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said North Korean hackers conducted more than 30 hacking attacks to steal its record $2.02 billion in crypto with three months left in the year.
In addition to the Bybit theft, North Korean hackers also are blamed for stealing $14 million from nine accounts on the WOO X crypto exchange in July and $1.2 million from the blockchain funding site Seedify in September, among many other thefts.
About 40% of the proceeds from the cryptocurrency thefts are used to fund North Korea’s nuclear arms and other weapons development efforts.
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