North Korea likely stole over $2 billion in cryptocurrency last year: U.S. official
Published: 13 Jan. 2026, 09:16
![Jonathan Fritz, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, speaks during a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center in New York on Jan. 12. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/01/13/006b77df-9ad6-4766-98bd-43ef9423f212.jpg)
Jonathan Fritz, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, speaks during a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center in New York on Jan. 12. [YONHAP]
North Korea likely stole over $2 billion in cryptocurrency last year, a U.S. official said Monday, amid growing concerns that its revenue from virtual asset heists continues to bankroll its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Jonathan Fritz, principal deputy assistant secretary at the State Department's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, delivered a presentation during a United Nations meeting on a Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) report detailing the North's sanctions violation and evasion through cyber and IT worker activities.
The MSMT was established after a UN expert panel, tasked with monitoring sanctions enforcement, was disbanded in April 2024 due to Russia's veto of a resolution to extend its mandate. It consists of 11 countries, including South Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada.
Fritz's document, based on the MSMT report, showed that from January last year through September, Pyongyang had stolen more than $1.6 billion in crypto thefts, with the total amount during the entire 2025 likely to exceed $2 billion.
The assessment is in line with an estimate from Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, which has said that North Korean hackers stole $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025, a 51 percent year-over-year increase.
From January 2024 to September last year, the recalcitrant country stole over $2.8 billion, according to the MSMT document.
"It's worth noting it's a conservative low-end estimate. The actual number is likely higher," Fritz said.
The U.S. official pointed out that North Korea relies on networks of its nationals abroad and foreign-based facilitators, including in China, Russia, Cambodia and Vietnam, to launder stolen digital assets into fiat currency for procurement activities and for funding its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.
In addition, he said that Pyongyang has deployed many IT workers overseas, including 1,000 to 1,500 workers in China and 150 to 300 workers in Russia, who engage in fraudulent activities to generate revenue for the North Korean regime.
![This April 3, 2013, file photo shows bitcoin tokens in Sandy, Utah. [AP/YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2026/01/13/37767858-6e8b-4d12-8dd5-458269951290.jpg)
This April 3, 2013, file photo shows bitcoin tokens in Sandy, Utah. [AP/YONHAP]
"These IT workers defraud global companies to gain otherwise legitimate jobs, taking employment opportunities from our own domestic populations and exposing our businesses to serious risk," Fritz said.
"Like DPRK cyber actors, these DPRK IT workers also rely on foreign facilitators from across UN member states to secure employment, to provide support and to remit earnings back to DPRK entities." DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
During the UN meeting, Kim Sang-jin, South Korea's deputy envoy to the UN, criticized Russia's use of a veto in 2024 that led to the disbandment of the UN sanctions monitoring panel, highlighting that the UN sanctions regime against North Korea is being constantly challenged by "malign actors across the globe."
Kim also underscored that the MSMT report reveals the "frightening situation where DPRK is financing its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs by exploiting the crypto industry and systematically undermining the integrity of the global financial systems."
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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