The G7 is joining forces against North Korean crypto hackers: trillion-dollar losses demand a response
Leaders of the G7 nations at the summit in Évian officially confirmed their intention to coordinate efforts to combat cryptocurrency thefts carried out by hacker groups linked to North Korea. The final document particularly emphasizes that cyberattacks by North Korean criminals pose a threat not only to the financial system but also to global security due to their direct connection to Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.
However, despite the loud statements, no specific mechanisms or new regulatory measures for the cryptocurrency sector were proposed at the summit. This leaves room for maneuver: in essence, the G7 merely identified the problem but did not provide tools to solve it.
The scale of the threat is confirmed by fresh data from the analytical platform Chainalysis. In 2025 alone, hackers working for North Korea stole crypto assets worth $2.02 billion — a 51% increase compared to the previous year. The total volume of funds they have stolen since monitoring began has already exceeded the $6.75 billion mark.
My analysis: The 51% annual increase in activity by North Korean groups is an alarming signal. It indicates that current protection methods, including standard KYC/AML procedures and address blocking, are not working effectively enough. While the G7 limits itself to declarations, hackers are refining their tactics, using increasingly complex money laundering schemes through mixers and decentralized exchanges. Without the introduction of mandatory verification for DeFi protocols and an international system for the rapid freezing of suspicious funds, we risk seeing new loss records as early as 2026.