North Korean Hackers Steal $720M in Digital Assets from Japanese Investors

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Chainalysis, a blockchain company, released in February a report suggesting that North Korean hackers had stolen around $1.7 billion worth of digital currencies in 2022.

Of this total, over 80% of the money was taken out of the DeFi decentralized finance market by cybercriminals.

Nikkei has reported that Japanese investors were among those who were most affected by the North Korean hackers, having lost over $720 million of virtual currencies since 2017, which is approximately 30% of the total funds stolen by the DPRK.

Vietnamese users of blockchain services and crypto exchanges have lost $540 million, while US investors have sustained a loss of around $497 million.

Most of the victims are Japanese crypto firms that had accumulated both their own funds and digital assets of customers.