North Korean Hackers Took $7.61 Billion in 2026 Without Breaking Any Code

Blockchain intelligence firm BitOK estimated that North Korean hackers took $7.61 billion across 38 cryptocurrency incidents from January to October 2026. In the six largest attacks, the intruders took control of personnel and signing infrastructure rather than exploiting software flaws, including a DevOps engineer’s laptop and a signing-service container at Binance, which accounted for $6.41 billion. Freezes and seizures caught $2.86 billion overall, leaving $4.75 billion beyond reach, while 32 smaller thefts from individuals and firms totaled $178.4 million. BitOK linked five attacks from KelpDAO in April to Binance in October through shared settlement addresses.