North Korean hackers accounted for a record $2.02 billion in global cryptocurrency thefts in 2025, which accounted for most of the $3.4 billion stolen this year, according to an industry report released on Thursday. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

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.