North Korea May Have the Third-Largest Bitcoin Stash in the World

SEOUL – With authorities identifying North Korean hackers to be behind multiple recent cryptocurrency hackings, the totalitarian communist state is now thought to have a bigger bitcoin stash than any other nation in the world besides the United States and the United Kingdom.

North Korea's hacker syndicates are now believed to have a bigger bitcoin stash than any other nation in the world besides the United States and the United Kingdom.

Binance News, a news platform of global cryptocurrency exchange business firm Binance, reported that North Korea’s allegedly state-run hacker syndicates are believed to have accumulated 13,562 BTC, valued at $1.14 billion. The data was provided by Arkham Intelligence, a Dominican Republic-based company that provides data about blockchain transactions to help identify money laundering and other suspicious activity.

The news comes after South Korea, the US and Japan said in January that North Korea-affiliated hacking groups including the Lazarus Group were involved in cyber attacks that stole $659 million in cryptocurrency.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation also released a statement last month saying that North Korea is responsible for the theft of approximately $1.5 billion worth of virtual assets, which occurred last month.

A portion of the stolen virtual assets are Ethereum coins, which are expected to be converted into bitcoins.

It was reported last week that the Lazarus Group converted at least $300 million of their stolen crypto into unrecoverable funds.

Lazarus Group and other hacking groups are known to be running programs and services at the behest of the government, and are a major source of income for the regime. North Korea is currently under sanctions placed by the international community.

A portion of the profits from North Korea’s illegal activities are used to fund its ballistic missiles programs and nuclear tests.

If confirmed, North Korea’s bitcoin reserve will be only behind US’ 198,109 BTC and the UK’s 61,245 BTC. It will be more than 10,635 BTC of Bhutan and El Salvador’s 6,117 BTC.

El Salvador government officially declared the use of bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, though it walked back the measure this year. Bhutan is actively engaging in bitcoin mining on a national level.