A recent study from the U.K.-based;blockchain;analysis provider Elliptic;has shown that;North Korean hacker groups have stolen $721M of crypto assets from Japan since 2017.
The sum is equal to 30% of these groups' illicit wealth, according to the Japan-headquartered newspaper Nikkei.
- Elliptic's data has also pointed out that $2.3B of crypto was stolen by North Korea from businesses all around the world between 2017 and 2022.
- On the ranking, Japan sat in first place and was respectively followed by Vietnam and Hong Kong.
- The report has revealed that the North Korea-borne crypto losses in U.S. businesses were $497M.
- Besides, North Korean hackers attacked at least three exchanges in Japan from 2018 to 2021.
- North Korean hackers;were also responsible for nearly $1.7B worth of crypto theft conducted through several hacks in 2022, up from $428.8M in the previous year.
- The figure accounted for almost half the $3.8B of crypto stolen from businesses globally last year.
- The $1.7B amount was also a record for North Korean hacker groups themselves.
- 2022 further went down in history as the biggest year ever for crypto hacking, with the stolen crypto amount increasing from $3.3B in 2021 to $3.8B.