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Billion-Dollar Crypto Hacks Linked to North Korea’s Weapons Development

When most people think of crypto hackers, they picture shadowy figures stealing NFTs or phishing people out of Bitcoin. But for North Korea, it’s become far more serious and strategic.

Over the past few years, Pyongyang has turned to crypto theft on an industrial scale, using stolen digital assets to prop up its heavily sanctioned economy and, more worryingly, to bankroll its nuclear weapons program. In February 2025, the Lazarus Group, North Korea’s elite state-backed hacking unit, was behind a jaw-dropping $1.5 billion crypto theft from Bybit, a major exchange based in Dubai. That’s not a typo: billion with a “b.”

Billion-Dollar Crypto Hacks Linked to North Korea’s Weapons Development

When most people think of crypto hackers, they picture shadowy figures stealing NFTs or phishing people out of Bitcoin. But for North Korea, it’s become far more serious and strategic.

Over the past few years, Pyongyang has turned to crypto theft on an industrial scale, using stolen digital assets to prop up its heavily sanctioned economy and, more worryingly, to bankroll its nuclear weapons program. In February 2025, the Lazarus Group, North Korea’s elite state-backed hacking unit, was behind a jaw-dropping $1.5 billion crypto theft from Bybit, a major exchange based in Dubai. That’s not a typo: billion with a “b.”

https://99bitcoins.com/news/billion-dollar-crypto-hacks-linked-to-north-koreas-weapons-development/