North Korea stole $2.06 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025 — that's 60% of every dollar lost to crypto hacks worldwide, according to a new report from blockchain security firm CertiK. The stolen funds are being used to finance the country's nuclear weapons programs, the report says.
The 2025 tally
CertiK's data puts the total global crypto hack losses at roughly $3.43 billion last year. North Korea's haul — more than two-thirds of that — dwarfs every other single source of theft. The figure marks a sharp escalation from prior years, though the report doesn't break down exactly which hacks were attributed to the regime.
Funding a nuclear program
The connection between crypto theft and Pyongyang's weapons ambitions isn't new, but the scale is. U.N. monitors and Western intelligence agencies have long warned that North Korea uses cybercrime to bypass international sanctions. At $2.06 billion in a single year, the crypto pipeline has become a major revenue stream for Kim Jong Un's regime. The money goes straight into missile and warhead development, the report states.
The growing challenge
For the crypto industry, the numbers are a stark reminder that state-backed actors are becoming more sophisticated. Unlike smaller, profit-driven hacking groups, North Korea's operations are systematic and often target exchanges, DeFi protocols, and cross-chain bridges. Security firms and regulators have struggled to keep up. The CertiK report doesn't name specific victims, but it notes that the average hack size is increasing.
The timing isn't great. The sector is already under pressure from tighter rules in the U.S. and Europe, and a $2 billion theft tied to a nuclear state makes the case for stricter oversight hard to ignore.
CertiK's findings are likely to feed into ongoing discussions at the Financial Action Task Force and among G7 nations about how to trace and freeze stolen crypto linked to sanctions evasion. For now, the $2.06 billion hole remains largely unrecovered. No major arrests or asset seizures tied to the 2025 thefts have been announced.
