North Korea reports $2.8 billion stolen in cryptocurrency hacks since 2024

The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), formed by several UN member states, claimed in a recent report that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has stolen at least $2.8 billion in cryptocurrency hacks since early 2024.

The report claims that crypto heists “accounted for approximately one-third of North Korea’s total foreign exchange earnings in 2024.”

MSMT is assisting Chainalysis and Mandiant with their analysis, and this total includes robberies that MSMT believes may have come from North Korea. ”with high certainty”

Read more: Cryptocurrency has become Kim Jong Un’s lifeline and Russia’s secret weapon

The largest of these hacks was in February 2025, when cryptocurrency exchange Bybit was breached and approximately $1.46 billion was stolen from its vaults.

A number of other large-scale robberies were also at cryptocurrency exchanges, including DMM Bitcoin, where about $308 million was stolen, and WazirX, where about $235 million was lost.

This analysis also includes a variety of large-scale DeFi hacks, including:

• PlayDapp stole $290 million
• Radiant Capital where $50 million was stolen
• UwU Lend made a loss of $19.3 million.

However, it is not clear whether the report accurately identified all these thefts as coming from North Korea.

Read more: FBI admits North Korean ‘TraderTraitor’ responsible for $1.5 billion Bybit hack

Taylor Monaghan, a security researcher in the crypto space, took issue with some of the report’s characterizations of X.

Monahan suggested SwissBord, Zoth, PrismaFi, and UwU Lend. In her opinion, it had nothing to do with North Korea..

He further pointed out that the 2025 BTCTurk hack was actually done by North Korea, while the 2024 BTCTurk hack was actually done by North Korea. The 2024 hack was linked to Russia.

These controversial classifications suggest that the top-line numbers presented in the report may be overstating the amount of money North Korea made from these hacks during this period.