Inside North Korea's Crypto Heists: $200M in Crypto Stolen in 2023; Over $2B in the Last Five Years
2023-08-18 • Trmlabs •
https://www.trmlabs.com/post/inside-north-koreas-crypto-heists
TRM Labs reports that North Korean hackers stole about USD 200 million in cryptocurrency in 2023 and more than USD 2 billion across over 30 attacks during the previous five years. The activity is described as opportunistic across the crypto ecosystem, with recent emphasis on DeFi targets and cross-chain bridges, including more than USD 800 million stolen from three bridge attacks in 2022. Supported attack paths include phishing, supply-chain attacks, infrastructure compromise, and theft of private keys or seed phrases, with the Ronin Bridge theft cited as a major example using stolen private keys. The Atomic Wallet case involved about USD 100 million stolen from more than 4,100 addresses across multiple blockchains, followed by swaps, mixers, automated laundering, cross-chain movement, and attempts to off-ramp through centralized exchanges.