North Korean hackers stole $6.75B in crypto: CertiK

North Korean hackers linked to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea stole an estimated 6.75 billion dollars in cryptocurrency across 263 documented incidents from 2016 through early 2026, according to a report by blockchain security firm CertiK. The operations accounted for about 60 percent of the 3.4 billion dollars lost to crypto hacks worldwide in 2025 alone, totaling roughly 2 billion dollars from 79 incidents that year.

The report highlights a strategic evolution in tactics, with attackers increasingly favoring social engineering and supply chain compromises over technical vulnerabilities in smart contracts. Rather than exploiting code, groups have targeted personnel through phishing, fake job offers and physical infiltration at industry conferences. In one prominent case, hackers drained 625 million dollars from the Ronin network in 2022 by impersonating a recruiter on LinkedIn and delivering malware via a PDF to an employee at developer Sky Mavis.

Similar methods marked larger 2025 breaches. The record 1.5 billion dollar Bybit exploit in February stemmed from a supply chain attack on a third-party signing provider, where attackers manipulated transaction interfaces....