North Korean hackers account for 76% of cryptocurrency theft losses in 2026, with cumulative theft exceeding $6 billion since 2017.

Deep Tide TechFlow News, April 30, according to The Block, a blockchain intelligence company, TRM Labs released a report showing that North Korean hacker organizations stole approximately $577 million in crypto assets in the first four months of 2026, accounting for 76% of the total global hacker losses during the same period. The losses mentioned above all came from two major incidents that occurred in April: KelpDAO suffered a loss of $292 million after an attack by the TraderTraitor organization, and Drift Protocol suffered a loss of $285 million after an attack by another North Korean sub-organization. Preparations for the latter attack had started as early as March 11 and were ultimately completed within 12 minutes, with the funds withdrawn.

The two incidents used different money-laundering routes. The stolen funds from Drift are currently largely lying dormant on Ethereum, while the stolen funds from KelpDAO were quickly exchanged for BTC through THORChain, with subsequent money laundering carried out with the help of Chinese intermediaries. TRM Labs noted that since 2017, North Korea’s total crypto asset theft has exceeded $6 billion, and its share of global losses has continued to rise—up from less than 10% in 2020 to 64% in 2025.