How North Korea’s US$1.5 billion hack exposed Asia’s crypto weaknesses
It began, as so many epochal crimes do, with a single breach. But by the time the dust had settled on the Bybit hack, nearly US$1.5 billion in digital assets had vanished, exposing not just the vulnerabilities of Asia’s fledgling crypto markets but the growing reach of North Korea’s cyber operatives.
The hack on February 21 represented a quantum leap in the scale and sophistication of cyber operations emanating from North Korea, according to a report released last month by American blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.
It accounted for nearly 70 per cent of all stolen digital assets globally in the first half of 2025 – laying bare the widening security cracks in Asia’s digital ecosystem and signalling the arrival of a new era of…
