North Korea’s been on an absolute tear stealing cryptocurrency to get around UN sanctions and fund its nuclear weapons program. A new report from the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team shows Pyongyang’s hackers grabbed at least $1.65 billion from January to September 2025 alone.
The biggest heist was $1.46 billion stolen from crypto exchange Bybit back in February. That’s on top of the $1.2 billion they stole throughout all of 2024. Kim Jong Un’s cyber army has basically turned hacking into North Korea’s main source of foreign cash since sanctions cut them off from legitimate trade.
What’s really sneaky is how they’re using the stolen money. The report found North Korean officials are using stablecoins to buy military equipment and raw materials like copper for making ammunition. They’re basically trading weapons and materials using cryptocurrency to dodge sanctions entirely.
North Korea’s also sending IT workers to at least eight countries, including China, Russia, Laos, Cambodia, and several African nations. These workers hide their nationalities and take contracts with companies around the world. The report even cited cases where North Korean animators worked on projects for Amazon and HBO Max without those companies knowing.
The wild part? North Korea is planning to send 40,000 workers to Russia, including several groups of IT specialists. Under UN sanctions, North Korean workers aren’t supposed to earn money abroad at all.
Conclusion
North Korea stole $1.65 billion in cryptocurrency during 2025, including the $1.4 billion Bybit heist, using funds and deploying IT workers abroad to evade sanctions and fund weapons programs.
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