North Korea has become one of the largest bitcoin owners in the world, surpassing the reserves of countries such as El Salvador and Bhutan.
This is reported by Coinomedia, UNN writes.
A North Korean state-sponsored hacking group converted a large amount of stolen Ethereum (ETH) into Bitcoin (BTC) from a Dubai-based crypto exchange. As a result, the current capital amounted to 13,562 BTC, which is estimated at approximately $1.14 billion.
This puts North Korea ahead of El Salvador and Bhutan in terms of government bitcoins.
El Salvador, known for being the first to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, has approximately 6,117 BTC. Bhutan, in turn, owns 10,635 BTC. North Korean bitcoin holdings surpassed El Salvador (6,117 BTC) and Bhutan (10,635 BTC), becoming the third largest holders of government bitcoins.
Now North Korea lags only behind the United States, which has 198,109 BTC, and the United Kingdom with 61,245 BTC.
North Korea's leap in bitcoin holdings underscores its growing focus on cryptocurrency as a tool to evade international sanctions and finance operations.
While countries like El Salvador openly embrace bitcoin, North Korea's involvement is mainly through cyberattacks and illegal activities. The Bybit attack is one of many operations carried out by North Korean hacking groups. Often, these operations are related to financing government initiatives.
North Korea's position in the bitcoin ranking raises concerns among other countries' governments about the role of cryptocurrency in international security.
Earlier, UNN reported that hackers from North Korea stole $1.5 billion from a Dubai-based crypto exchange during an asset transfer.
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