Thanks to the theft of $1.5 billion in crypto assets from the Bybit exchange last month, the DPRK has managed to rise to third place in the list of countries with the largest number of bitcoins. Pyongyang is now second only to the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to Arkham Intelligence, a company that uses artificial intelligence to identify the owners of anonymous cryptocurrencies, North Korean hackers Lazarus Group have 13,521 BTC worth $1.14 billion. America has 198,109 BTC, and the UK has — 61,245 BTC. Both governments received cryptocurrencies through the confiscation of funds belonging to criminals.
The tokens stolen from Bybit were mostly in ETH, and most of them were later converted to bitcoin. Most of the cryptocurrency was laundered through the THORChain protocol in early March, which earned $5.5 million in commissions. Before the conversion, Lazarus hackers had more ETH in their hands than Vitalik Buterin or the Ethereum Foundation.
After the incident with Bybit, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by trading volume, Lazarus Group attacked one of the services of the OKX exchange. The DEX aggregator has been temporarily suspended for updates to fix the vulnerabilities.
The Lazarus Group has been involved in some of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history, including the theft of $1.34 billion worth of tokens last year, which is 61% of all cryptocurrencies stolen in 2024.
It is believed that North Korean hackers have been engaged in cryptocurrency-related cybercrime for more than 10 years. The proceeds are used to strengthen the DPRK’s army and weapons.
Source: Arkham Intelligence