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…
