New york: North Korea likely stole over US$2 billion in cryptocurrency last year, a U.S. official said Monday, amid growing concerns that its revenue from virtual asset heists continues to bankroll its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Jonathan Fritz, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, delivered a presentation during a U.N. meeting on a Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report detailing the North's sanctions violation and evasion through cyber and information technology (IT) worker activities.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the MSMT was established after a U.N. expert panel, tasked with monitoring sanctions enforcement, was disbanded in April 2024 due to Russia's veto of a resolution to extend its mandate. It consists of 11 countries, including South Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia, and Canada. Fritz's document, based on the MSMT report, showed that from January last year through September, Pyongyang had stolen more than $1.6 billion in crypto thefts, with the total amount during the entire 2025 likely to exceed $2 billion.
The assessment is in line with an estimate from Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, which has said that North Korean hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, marking a 51 percent year-over-year increase. From January 2024 to September last year, the recalcitrant country stole over $2.8 billion, according to the MSMT document. "It's worth noting it's a conservative low-end estimate. The actual number is likely higher," Fritz said.