North Korea is rolling in bitcoin. Only the US and UK have more

North Korea is believed to hold the world’s third-largest reserve of government-owned bitcoin, following a US$1.5 billion cryptocurrency heist linked to state-backed hackers.
According to cryptocurrency portal Bitcoin.com, North Korea’s government now owns 13,562 bitcoin, valued at around US$1.14 billion, based on data from crypto-security firm Arkham Intelligence.
That means it trails only the United States, which held 198,109 coins as of January, and Britain with 61,245 coins, according to Arkham.
On February 21, the Lazarus Group, a hacker syndicate believed to be backed by the North Korean government, stole tokens worth US$1.5 billion from Dubai-based trading platform Bybit, according to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The hack has been called the largest cryptocurrency theft in history.
Reports indicate that the tokens taken by the group were primarily ethereum, with a large amount later converted into bitcoin, according to .
“Unfortunately, this transaction was manipulated through a sophisticated attack,” Bybit said in a statement on social media. “As a result, the attacker was able to gain control of the affected [ethereum] cold wallet and transfer its holdings to an unidentified address.”
A cold wallet is an offline cryptocurrency storage facility that is thought to be less vulnerable to hacks.
In the wake of the incident, Bybit, which is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, launched a bounty aimed at tracing the stolen funds and has pledged to reward 10 per cent of any amount recovered.
However, only US$40 million had been recovered as of March 10, according to BBC.
The Lazarus Group has been implicated in several of the largest cryptocurrency thefts in history, including the theft of US$1.34 billion worth of tokens last year, which accounted for 61 per cent of all cryptocurrencies stolen in 2024, according to Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform.
North Korea has trained an army of IT workers and hackers that operate at home and abroad, earning foreign currency to fund military developments, This Week in Asia reported earlier.
North Korean hackers are believed to have been engaged in cryptocurrency-related cybercrimes for over a decade, developing a pool of talent knowledgeable in digital currencies. Recently, they have also begun using generative artificial intelligence tools to enhance their attacks.