North Korea’s ‘illicit’ crypto holdings heavily impacted by market crash

The recent plunge in the crypto market could cost North Korea millions of dollars in stolen crypto assets, affecting its funding of its weapons program, Reuters. report..

The recent crash of Bitcoin (BTC) to less than $ 20,000 means that sanctioned countries have caused millions of unrealized losses to their illegal cryptocurrencies.

North Korea’s stolen crypto holdings will decrease

According to Chainalysis, North Korea’s old unwashed crypto assets are currently valued at $ 65 million, a significant decrease from $ 170 million. These are the funds stolen from hacks between 2017 and 2021.

Nick Karlsen, an analyst at blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs, also said that some of North Korea’s holdings were originally worth tens of millions of dollars, but lost about 85% of that value.

According to South Korea’s anonymous government sources, this decline could severely upset North Korea’s weapons program. The Korea Defense Analysis Institute in Seoul estimates that this year alone it has spent $ 620 million on this program.

North Korea has prioritized its weapons program and has tested several missiles this year. The information available indicates that the country funded these missile programs with funds stolen from crypto exchanges.

North Korean hackers pose one of the biggest threats to the cryptocurrency industry. A group of hackers from the country have led to over $ 600 million in hacks on the Ronin Bridge at Axie Infinity.

North Korea denies crypto hack

According to Reuters, the North Korean government has refused to link to crypto hacks.

An unnamed embassy diplomat who called the North Korean embassy in London said the allegations were “totally fake news.”

However, there is another way to say the publicly available information.Recently report According to Coincub, North Korea is the world’s leading country in cryptocurrency crime. The United States and Russia have completed the top three for a variety of reasons.

More than 7,000 hackers have raised about $ 1.59 billion for North Korea, according to a Coincub report. In addition, North Korea has 15 documented cases of crypto-related crimes.

Meanwhile, the rate of crypto crimes in the country is based on Brian E. Nelson of the US Treasury. phone For sanctions on the nation. According to him, the North Korean government is using the proceeds of its crypto hacking to create weapons of mass destruction.