North Korean hackers accounted for 61% of all cryptocurrency stolen in 2024

The total value of cryptocurrency stolen in 2024 increased by 21% and reached $2.2 billion. More than half of this amount was stolen by cybercriminals allegedly associated with the DPRK, according to a Chainalysis report.

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Between 2017 and 2023, North Korean hackers stole $3 billion in cryptocurrency assets, the UN Security Council reported. In 2024, cybercriminals from this country accounted for 61% of the total amount of stolen assets – $1.34 billion and 47 incidents, Chainalysis said. Most of the hacks that led to the theft of cryptocurrencies occurred between January and July of this year – the amount of funds stolen during this time exceeded $1.58 billion, which is 84.4% more than in the same period a year earlier. Since July, such incidents began to occur much less frequently, which experts correlated with changes in the geopolitical situation related to the DPRK.

Image source: chainalysis.com

Over the past decade, annual cryptocurrency thefts have exceeded a billion dollars four times: in 2018 ($1.5 billion), 2021 ($3.3 billion), 2022 ($3.7 billion) and 2023 ($1.8 billion). Decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms seem to be the most vulnerable – over the past three years, services with insufficient protection have become the most frequent targets of attacks; They enjoyed the greatest “popularity” among hackers in the first quarter of 2024, and in the second and third quarters, cybercriminals switched to centralized platforms.

The most high-profile cases of attacks on centralized services this year were the hacks of the Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin, which lost $305 million as a result of the incident, and the Indian WazirX, which suspended the withdrawal of funds after hacking its security system in July.