North Korea’s $1 Billion Crypto Impact

It turned out that hackers from North Korea, one of the most closed countries in the world, stole $721 million worth of cryptocurrency from Japan.

According to news from Japan’s Nikkei daily, based on research from British blockchain analytics platform Elliptic, the amount of crypto money North Korean hackers stole from Japan since 2017 has reached $721 million. This amount was reported to be equivalent to 30 percent of global cryptocurrency theft.

According to Elliptic, North Korea stole a total of $2.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency between 2017 and 2022. North Korean hacking groups were reported to have used cyber attack methods to steal crypto money. In addition to Japan, 540 million Vietnam dollars, 497 million US dollars and 281 million Hong Kong dollars were reportedly stolen.

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 countries announced last week that they will step up crackdowns on cryptocurrency theft cases involving governments.