Bybit hack turned North Korea into a Bitcoin Whale

While Bitcoin struggles to break new ground, another country is racking up its Bitcoin holdings, albeit illegally. According to research group Arkham Intelligence, hacking group Lazarus (which is famously funded by the regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un) has now laundered the money they stole from the Bybit hack, making Pyongyang a real Bitcoin whale.

The country is now the fifth largest Bitcoin whale on the country rankings

Social Engineering

Hackers from Lazarus, the North Korean group that has carried out several major crypto hacks, used a ‘social engineering’ trick on 21 February of this year to get Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, to approve a routine transaction. Bybit was moving a large amount of Ethereum from one account to another, and given the size of the order, over 1.5 billion dollars, it needed the approval of its CEO. What Ben didn’t know is that Lazarus had replaced the software he was using to do this, and as a result, 1.5 billion dollars’ worth of Ethereum was transferred to North Korea.

NEW: 🇰🇵 North Korea’s Lazarus Group now holds over $1 billion in #Bitcoin, primarily tied to the Bybit hack 👀 pic.twitter.com/sHZwbwadns

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) March 17, 2025

Lazarus has now exchanged that Ether for Bitcoins using several crypto mixers and transferred the Bitcoins to the accounts of the North Korean government, or in other words, the account of dictator Kim Jong Un.

Bhutan

The hack puts North Korea in fifth place among the countries that own the most Bitcoins. According to Arkham’s data, the United States still holds the top spot with around 200,000 Bitcoins, worth around $16.5 billion. Bitbo data, a Chinese crypto intelligence surveyor, says China holds the second spot with a similar amount, around 194,000 Bitcoins. They are followed by the United Kingdom and Ukraine.

Until last week, Bhutan, the small Asian country that had been secretly buying Bitcoins since 2020 was in fifth place, but due to the Bybit hack and the new riches it brought, North Korea has now surpassed Bhutan.