The amount has been revealed. A report published on December 19 by Chainalysis and then relayed by the media Techcrunch reveals that the theft of cryptocurrencies has increased by 21% this year, reaching a substantial amount of 2.2 billion dollars. And according to the report, North Korean hackers are responsible for a lot of it.
North Korea at the heart of suspicions
Half of the amount of stolen cryptocurrencies is believed to be due to hacker groups affiliated with North Korea, according to the report. Earlier this year, suspicions had already been raised against them by the United Nations Security Council which claimed that North Korean hackers had stolen $3 billion in crypto assets between 2017 and 2023.
But according to Chainalysis, this year’s numbers are even more impressive. Most of the thefts would have taken place between January and July and would have amounted to a gain of $1.58 billion. This represents an increase of approximately 84% compared to the previous year over the same period. The situation then calmed down, seeing the number of hacks become significantly less frequent.
Geopolitical interpretations
But then, how can we interpret this acceleration in flights followed by a clear decrease? Chainalysis attributes it to the alliance between North Korea and Russia, which was formed after a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un last June.
North Korea, which has increased its cooperation with Russia, may have changed its cybercrime strategies. After the summit between the two leaders, the amount of crypto assets stolen by hackers linked to North Korea fell by 53.73% according to the report.
Overall, the rise in cryptocurrency thefts poses a constant threat. The main target being decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms which do not apply good security practices.
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