The decline in the cost of cryptocurrencies has a significant impact not only on respectable investors, but also on criminals. Much to the chagrin of the North Korean regime, his chest of stolen cryptocurrencies was suddenly worth substantially less than before. And this forces us to cut funding for the weapons program.
Old unlaundered North Korean crypto assets have dropped in value from $170 million to $65 million since the beginning of this year, according to Chainalysis, a data analytics firm. These assets include funds stolen in 49 hacks from 2017 to 2021. Thus, in this year alone, the attackers lost more than 60% of their original assets. Moreover, the cryptocurrency obtained from a single heist in 2021 has lost at least 80% of its value, according to an analyst at TRM Labs. The North Korean embassy in London called the publication “absolutely false news.”
North Korea is, as it were, completely isolated from the normal financial system, which was intended to make it difficult to work on a nuclear program. Although some countries and individuals support the leadership of this country and help to circumvent sanctions, including with the use of cryptocurrencies. But in this regard, not everything is smooth. Like any hacker, the regime is faced with the task of converting the stolen cryptocurrency into real money so that the assets can be used. But it is extremely problematic for a thief to sell stolen property at its face value. Therefore, North Korea’s actual cybercrime revenues were initially less than nominally estimated. And now, due to the fall in the value of cryptocurrencies, this source of funding for the regime has become even smaller.
Although “less money” is not the same as “no money”. According to Reuters, despite problems with the conversion, in 2019 alone, North Korea was able to direct about $ 2 billion to its weapons program thanks to cyber attacks.
The price of Bitcoin fell to $19 thousand and pulls the entire cryptocurrency market with it
Source: The Verge
