"North Korea Is the King of Cryptocurrency Hacking"... Stole Over 1 Trillion Won in Six Months
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- 2026-07-03 07:51:44
- Updated
- 2026-07-03 07:51:44
Voice of America (VOA) reported on the 3rd, citing a report by blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, that about two-thirds of the global losses from cryptocurrency hacks in the first half of this year were attributed to hacking groups linked to North Korea.
The statistics reflected only North Korean hacking incidents and did not include illicit gains from phishing, cryptocurrency scams, or fake employment of overseas IT workers. North Korea's actual crypto-related revenue is believed to be much larger.
The stolen cryptocurrency appears to account for a significant share of North Korea's foreign currency earnings. These thefts are believed to have been carried out by hacking groups linked to North Korea. The country has long cultivated so-called keyboard warriors for cyberattacks around the world.
According to the report, North Korea-linked hacking groups stole a total of $643 million in cryptocurrency in the first half of this year, or about 1 trillion won. That accounts for 66.2% of the global total losses from cryptocurrency hacks during the same period, which came to $972 million, or about 1.5 trillion won.
The report attributed a $285 million hack at the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Drift in April and a separate $292 million hack at another DeFi platform, Kelp DAO, to North Korea-linked groups. The combined losses from those two incidents alone came to $577 million, or about 900 billion won.
However, the report said the amount of cryptocurrency stolen by North Korea-linked hackers in the first half of this year fell from about $1.7 billion, or about 2.6 trillion won, in the same period last year. It concluded that this was not because North Korea's attack capabilities had weakened, but because there were fewer mega-hacking incidents this year than last year.
rainman@fnnews.com Kim Kyung-soo Reporter