North Korea reportedly ranks third in the world for Bitcoin reserves

With authorities identifying North Korean hackers as behind many recent cryptocurrency cyberattacks, the communist totalitarian state is now thought to have a larger Bitcoin reserve than any other country in the world, apart from the United States and the United Kingdom.

Binance News, a news platform of global cryptocurrency exchange firm Binance, recently reported that hackers run by the North Korean state are believed to have accumulated 13,562 BTC, which is valued at $1.14 billion.

She cited Arkham Intelligence, a company based in the Dominican Republic that provides data on blockchain transactions to help identify money laundering and other suspicious activities.

Hacker groups linked to North Korea, including the Lazarus Group, were identified as the culprits behind a series of cyberattacks in 2024 that stole $659 million in cryptocurrencies, according to a joint statement from South Korea, the United States and Japan in January. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation last month publicly stated that North Korea was responsible for the theft of about $1.5 billion worth of virtual assets, the largest hacking event to date, which occurred last month.

Read too North Korean hackers cash in at least $300 million from their record-breaking $1.5 billion cryptocurrency heist

Most of the stolen virtual assets were Ethereum coins, a significant portion of which is thought to have been converted to Bitcoin.

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

The Lazarus Group and other hacking groups are accused of being run by the North Korean government and are thought to be a significant source of revenue for it. North Korea is currently under multiple sanctions by the international community as punitive measures for its development of a nuclear weapons program.

A significant portion of the profits from North Korea's illicit activities are thought to be used to finance its ballistic missile programs and nuclear tests.

If confirmed, North Korea’s Bitcoin reserves would be second only to those of the US at 198,109 BTC and the UK at 61,245 BTC, according to Binance estimates. It would be more than Bhutan’s 10,635 BTC and El Salvador’s 6,117 BTC.

The government of El Salvador officially declared Bitcoin legal tender in 2021, but later reversed the move this year. Bhutan is actively engaging in Bitcoin mining on a national level. /Telegraph/