North Korea's Crypto Money-Laundering Increasingly Relies on Chinese Criminal Networks, RUSI Report Says, Citing $2.8 Billion in Thefts

According to Arzdigital, a new report from the UK's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), published by Tuesday, August 11, 2026 (20 Mordad 1405), found that North Korea has become more reliant than before on criminal networks and international scam gangs to launder stolen cryptocurrency. The report, written by Allison Owen and Noemi Tambe, said North Korea-linked hackers stole at least $2.8 billion in digital assets between January 2024 and September 2025, funds believed to partly finance the country's weapons program. The report found that ownership of stolen assets often changes hands before being cashed out, with a network of over-the-counter brokers, peer-to-peer traders and rented accounts held by intermediaries in the Philippines, Indonesia and China used to cash out funds in small amounts, around $7,000 per transaction. The report also cited the roughly $1.5 billion hack of the Bybit exchange in February 2025, saying about 95 percent of the stolen assets had been converted to cash by September 2025, though Bybit has so far recovered $48.4 million and frozen another $30.5 million of the funds.