North Korea-linked hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, marking their biggest annual haul to date and pushing their all-time total to $6.75 billion, according to a report by Chainanlysis. The surge comes despite fewer attacks, as DPRK groups shifted to high-value, precision infiltrations targeting centralised platforms.
This comes after Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency hit a record high of $126,000 for the first time ever in 2025. For months, analysts had been predicting a bull run lasting for years, fueled by an administration that championed digital assets, Bloomberg noted.
The Chainanlysis report noted that,
North Korean hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a 51% year-over-year increase, pushing their all-time total to $6.75 billion despite fewer attacks.
The DPRK is achieving larger thefts with fewer incidents, often by embedding IT workers inside crypto services or using sophisticated impersonation tactics targeting executives.
The DPRK shows clear preferences for Chinese-language money laundering services, bridge services, and mixing protocols, with a 45-day laundering cycle following major thefts.
Individual wallet compromises surged to 158,000 incidents affecting 80,000 unique victims in 2025, though total value stolen ($713M) decreased from 2024.
Despite increased Total Value Locked in DeFi, hack losses remained suppressed in 2024-2025, suggesting improved security practices are making a meaningful difference.
Crypto theft has always been dominated by a few massive hacks, but 2025 marks a shift in scale, the report said.
It explained that, for the first time, the gap between the largest single hack and the median incident has exceeded a ratio of 1,000 to 1. In other words, the biggest attacks now involve sums a thousand times larger than those in a typical breach, surpassing even the extremes seen during the 2021 bull market.
Trump-Fueled Crypto Boom Fizzles In Brutal Year For Retail Traders
