Along with the growing adoption and value of crypto assets, theft is also on the rise. This year, the total value of stolen cryptocurrencies increased by 21%, reaching $2.2 billion. And according to a Chainalysis report released Thursday, more than half of that amount was stolen by hacking groups linked to North Korea.
Earlier this year, said the United Nations Security Council that North Korean hackers stole $3 billion in cryptocurrency assets between 2017 and 2023. In 2024, hackers linked to North Korea accounted for 61% of the total amount stolen — worth $1.34 billion, across 47 cases, according to the Chainalysis report.
Geopolitics in the picture
The report highlighted that most crypto breaches occurred between January and July this year, but the amount stolen had already exceeded $1.58 billion, about 84.4% higher than the same period in 2023.
After July, however, hacking events became significantly rarer, possibly due to geopolitics. Chainalysis attributes this to North Korea’s resulting alliance with Russia after a meeting between Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, in June.
The amount of crypto assets stolen by hackers linked to North Korea fell by 53.73% after the June summit, according to Chainalysis. North Korea, which has increased its cooperation with Russia, may have changed its cybercrime tactics, the report said.
Victims need stronger security
Crypto hacking continues to be an ongoing threat, with more than a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrencies being hacked in four separate years in the past decade – 2018 ($1.5 billion), 2021 ($3.3 billion), 2022 ($3.7 billion dollars) and 2023 (1.8 billion dollars).
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms that do not implement proper security practices were the primary targets of cryptocurrency attacks over the past three years and accounted for the highest amount of stolen assets in Q1 2024. However, between Q2 and Q3 2024, centralized services were the main target of attacks.
Some notable cases of central services attacked in 2024 include; DMM Bitcoin, a Japanese crypto exchange which lost $305 million (¥48 billion) in bitcoin and WazirX, an Indian crypto exchange, which halted withdrawals in July after a security breach by hackers linked to North Korea.
