North Korea is rolling in bitcoin. Only the US and UK have more
North Korea is believed to hold the world's third-largest reserve of government-owned bitcoin, following a US$1.5 billion cryptocurrency heist linked to state-backed hackers.
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According to cryptocurrency portal Bitcoin.com, North Korea's government now owns 13,562 bitcoin, valued at around US$1.14 billion, based on data from crypto-security firm Arkham Intelligence.
That means it trails only the
United States , which held 198,109 coins as of January, and
Britain with 61,245 coins, according to Arkham.
On February 21, the Lazarus Group, a hacker syndicate believed to be backed by the North Korean government,
stole tokens worth US$1.5 billion from Dubai-based trading platform Bybit, according to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The hack has been called the largest cryptocurrency theft in history.
North Korea has trained an army of IT workers and hackers who operate at home and abroad. Photo: Shutterstock
Reports indicate that the tokens taken by the group were primarily ethereum, with a large amount later converted into bitcoin, according to Bitcoin.com.
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