Lazarus Group's Cryptocurrency Heists Reach $6.75 Billion
The North Korean hacking group known as Lazarus Group has been linked to an estimated $6.75 billion in cryptocurrency theft since 2017, making it the single largest state-sponsored crypto theft operation documented by researchers globally.
One notable incident was the February 2025 Bybit hack, which yielded $1.5 billion in a single attack, representing the largest individual cryptocurrency theft ever recorded, according to FBI attribution and blockchain analysis firms.
The group's operations involve targeting exchanges, bridges, and DeFi protocols since 2017, with a notable shift towards cross-chain bridge vulnerabilities specifically demonstrated by the Ronin bridge attack incident in March 2022, which yielded $625 million from the Axie Infinity-connected bridge infrastructure.
Chainalysis data shows North Korean hackers accounted for 60% of the more than $3.4 billion in cryptocurrency stolen globally from January through early December 2025, far exceeding other nation-state and criminal hacking groups.