Crypto
Japan, US blame North Koreans for $300 million crypto theft
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Tokyo, Japan — A North Korean hacking group stole cryptocurrency worth over $300 million from the Japan-based exchange DMM Bitcoin, according to Japanese police and the United States’ FBI.
The TraderTraitor group — believed to be part of Lazarus Group, which is allegedly linked to the Pyongyang authorities — carried out the heist, Japan’s National Police Agency said Tuesday.
Lazarus Group gained notoriety a decade ago when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures as revenge for “The Interview,” a film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
READ: Philippines ranks 2nd in cryptocurrency ownership globally — study
The FBI detailed “the theft of cryptocurrency worth $308 million US dollars from the Japan-based cryptocurrency company DMM by North Korean cyber actors” in a separate statement dated Monday.
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It described a “targeted social engineering” operation where a hacker pretended to be a recruiter on LinkedIn to contact an employee of a different crypto wallet software company.
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They sent the employee what appeared to be a pre-employment test, which actually contained a malicious line of code.
That allowed the hacker to compromise their system and impersonate the employee, the FBI said.
“In late May 2024, the actors likely used this access to manipulate a legitimate transaction request by a DMM employee, resulting in the loss of 4,502.9 Bitcoin, worth $308 million at the time,” it said.
“The FBI, National Police Agency of Japan, and other US government and international partners will continue to expose and combat North Korea’s use of illicit activities — including cybercrime and cryptocurrency theft — to generate revenue for the regime,” it said.
North Korea’s cyber-warfare program dates back to at least the mid-1990s.
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It has since grown to a 6,000-strong cyber-warfare unit known as Bureau 121 that operates from several countries, according to a 2020 US military report.
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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