North Korea leapfrogs Bhutan, El Salvador in Bitcoin holdings after Bybit hack

The People’s Democrat Republic of Korea has become the fifth sovereign Bitcoin holder in the world after Lazarus stole more than $ 1.4 billion in Bybit.

The terrorist group funded by North Korea Lazarus has catapulted the country’s bitcoin (BTC) Subjects above the caches controlled by the Crypto-Bhutan user-friendly countries and the Salvador. Lazare checks 13,518 BTC, worth around 1.1 billion dollars at the time of the press, according to Arkham data.

This massive wealth has been raised by numerous cyber attacks and cryptographic exploits over the years, such as the Japanese exchange of DMM Bitcoin in 2024 and Ronin Network in 2022, where Lazarus stole $ 308 million and more than $ 600 million in crypto, respectively.

Currently, the organization linked to RPDC has more bitcoin than Bhutan 10 635 BTC Trove, which it has accumulated by mining on a large scale, and 6,118 BTC attributed to El Salvador, the first country to adopt the BTC as a legal tender.

Currently, 198,109 BTC held by the American authorities, the Trove of 194,000 BTC from China, the 61,000 BTC of the United Kingdom and the BTC reserve of 46,351 BTC in Ukraine are the sovereign portfolios known larger than North Korea.

The sudden jump in the richness of the BTC of North Korea follows the attack on Lazarus against the Parbit in February. Bybit for Crypto based in Dubai reported that more than 400,000 ether (Ethn) had been stolen in its multi-Siglo-Sig cold wallet.

Lazarus has hit decentralized funding protocols like Thorchain, who Internal developers and the cryptographic community critical For lax anti-criminal measures, exchange a significant part of the BTC ETH. According to CNN, citing a White House official, Lazarus produced and the illicit wealth of the other unions funded by DPKR Finances nearly 50% of the North Korea nuclear missile program.