Crypto klepto North Korea stole $659M over just 5 heists last year

**Executive summary:** North Korean-linked cyber actors conducted a coordinated 2024 campaign that stole roughly $659M from multiple cryptocurrency exchanges (notably BitcoinDMM and WazirX) using sophisticated social engineering (fake job/recruiter schemes), malicious pre-employment code, session-cookie theft and compromise of transaction signing processes, followed by laundering through services like Tornado Cash; governments (US, Japan, South Korea) have publicly attributed the thefts and called for increased public–private collaboration.