{"id":3160,"date":"2025-10-09T04:52:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/2025\/10\/09\/bybit-theft-drives-record-breaking-2bn-haul-for-north-korea\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:52:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:52:44","slug":"bybit-theft-drives-record-breaking-2bn-haul-for-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/2025\/10\/09\/bybit-theft-drives-record-breaking-2bn-haul-for-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Bybit Theft Drives Record-Breaking $2bn Haul for North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/localimages\/ea721ff9-8ba4-4d88-b386-57e9e1606077.jpg?width=64&#038;height=64&#038;mode=crop&#038;scale=both&#038;format=webp\" alt=\"Photo of Phil Muncaster\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"cphContent_pnlArticleBody\" data-layout-id=\"2\" data-edit-folder-name=\"text\" data-index=\"0\">\n<p>North Korea-backed threat actors have stolen more than $2bn in cryptocurrency this year to fund the hermit state\u2019s missile and nuclear weapons programs, according to new blockchain analysis.<\/p>\n<p>The figure represents the largest ever annual tally for North Korean hackers, with three months still to go in 2025. It means they have stolen over $6bn in crypto to date to fund the autocratic regime, said London-headquartered blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis year\u2019s losses are driven in large part by February\u2019s $1.46bn theft from cryptocurrency exchange Bybit,\u201d it explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOther thefts publicly attributed to North Korea in 2025 include those suffered by LND.fi, WOO X and Seedify. Elliptic has attributed more than 30 additional hacks to North Korea so far this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 total so far is triple last year\u2019s figure\u00a0and beats 2022\u2019s record of $1.35bn, which came on the back of attacks against Ronin Network and Harmony Bridge.<\/p>\n<p><em>Read more on North Korean crypto raids: Crypto-Hackers Steal $2.2bn as North Koreans Dominate<\/em><\/p>\n<p>While most attacks continue to target crypto-exchanges, high-net worth individuals are also coming under growing scrutiny, the report noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority of the hacks in 2025 have been perpetrated through social engineering attacks, where hackers deceive or manipulate individuals in order to gain access to cryptocurrency,\u201d Elliptic said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis marks a shift from earlier attacks where in many cases technical\u00a0flaws\u00a0in crypto infrastructure were exploited to steal funds. This shift highlights that the weak point in cryptocurrency security is increasingly human, rather than technical.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>A Laundering Arms Race<\/h2>\n<p>Elliptic said that, while blockchain\u2019s transparency means every asset \u201cleaves a trace that can be analyzed, tracked, and linked,\u201d Pyongyang is getting better at hiding its tracks.<\/p>\n<p>These increasingly \u201ccomplex and resourceful\u201d cryptocurrency laundering techniques now include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Multiple rounds of mixing and cross-chain transactions<\/li>\n<li>Use of \u201cobscure blockchains\u201d where analytics firms have limited coverage<\/li>\n<li>Exploitation of \u201crefund addresses\u201d to redirect assets to fresh wallets<\/li>\n<li>Creation and trading of tokens issued directly by laundering networks<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korea-backed threat actors have stolen more than $2bn in cryptocurrency this year to fund the hermit state\u2019s missile and nuclear weapons programs, according to new blockchain analysis. The figure represents the largest ever annual tally for North Korean hackers, with three months still to go in 2025. It means they have stolen over $6bn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"medium_large":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"large":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"morenews-featured":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"morenews-large":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"morenews-medium":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260.jpg",300,300,false],"crawlomatic_preview_image":["http:\/\/ft365.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3160-bf6b9a42-a92e-46af-a2c4-bf0b0b9d7260-146x146.jpg",146,146,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"henry","author_link":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/author\/henry\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/category\/uncategorized\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Uncategorized<\/a>","tag_info":"Uncategorized","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ft365.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}