How the 2025 Bybit Hack Catapulted Kim Jong Un to Crypto’s Most Influential Figure

A single breach rewired the entire power grid of digital finance. Forget Silicon Valley visionaries and Wall Street whales—the most consequential force in crypto now operates from Pyongyang.

The Anatomy of a Digital Heist

The attack didn't just siphon funds; it exposed the soft underbelly of centralized trust. Security protocols designed to repel ordinary threats crumbled against a state-sponsored digital blitz. The fallout was immediate and visceral—a multi-billion dollar evaporation that sent shockwaves from retail portfolios to institutional vaults.

Geopolitics Meets the Blockchain

This wasn't mere theft; it was a strategic demonstration. The hack proved that crypto's borderless nature is its greatest strength and its most glaring vulnerability. A nation-state actor, operating with impunity, could destabilize markets, manipulate asset flows, and assert dominance without firing a single physical shot. Regulators scrambled, exchanges fortified their digital moats, and a chilling question settled over the industry: who's really in control?

The New Power Broker

Overnight, Kim Jong Un's regime transformed from a geopolitical pariah into crypto's unavoidable variable. Every protocol upgrade, every new compliance rule, and every major investment decision now has to account for the 'Pyongyang Factor.' Influence isn't measured just in market cap or developer activity anymore—it's measured in the sheer disruptive capacity wielded by a single adversarial state. The incident forced a trillion-dollar industry to kneel at the altar of realpolitik—a sobering reminder that code is still written on a planet with borders. Some hedge fund managers probably saw it as the ultimate volatility play.

The 2025 Bybit hack did more than drain wallets. It redrew the map of crypto influence, placing a nuclear-armed dictator at its center. The future of decentralized finance, it seems, will be written under a very long shadow.

TLDR

• Bybit hack exposed failures in cold storage and multisig custody systems.
• FATF named the $1.4B Bybit breach the largest crypto theft to date.
• North Korean hackers linked to Bybit hack dominated FATF’s 2025 report.
• Bybit kept withdrawals open, setting new crisis management standards.

A $1.4 billion hack targeting the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit in February 2025 reshaped global perceptions of digital asset security and regulatory priorities. The breach, tied to North Korean hackers, became a turning point that made Kim Jong Un crypto’s most influential figure of the year.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) called the Bybit theft the largest in crypto history, warning that crosschain activity and stablecoins were amplifying illicit finance risks faster than existing systems could manage.

Custody Systems Questioned After $1.4 Billion Theft

The Bybit exploit revealed that cold storage and multisignature wallets—once considered the industry’s most secure options—were not foolproof. According to Ishai Shoham, head of product at Utila, “Cold storage and multisig labels are meaningless if the approval FLOW or signer environment can be manipulated.”

Following the breach, exchanges reevaluated internal custody models, focusing on real-time transaction approval and multi-environment verification. The event also sparked discussions on moving beyond static wallet-based security toward dynamic monitoring systems capable of identifying behavioral anomalies.

FATF Report Links Hack to North Korea

In its June 2025 report, FATF officially named the Bybit incident as the largest crypto theft ever recorded and linked it to North Korean state-backed hackers. The report urged member states to strengthen licensing, supervision, and international coordination.

“The case highlights persistent gaps in the Travel Rule and enforcement,” said Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association. He added that automation and decentralized finance had accelerated the pace of laundering activities beyond human control.

The FATF emphasized that these vulnerabilities had evolved into systemic risks for the global financial system. As a result, jurisdictions such as Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines introduced tighter licensing requirements for exchanges.

Crosschain Movement and Laundering Risks

The hack demonstrated how quickly attackers could MOVE stolen assets through decentralized networks. Shoham noted that once assets leave a compromised wallet, “attackers can atomize and recompose value across chains faster than human response cycles.”

This shift changed the perception of laundering risk. While mixers had long been viewed as the main threat, the focus moved toward decentralized routing protocols like THORChain and eXch. Both networks were used by the attackers to swap assets, exploiting the neutrality of crosschain liquidity routes.

Bybit Sets New Benchmark for Crisis Management

Despite the scale of the breach, Bybit’s response was widely praised. CEO Ben Zhou provided regular updates through livestreams, ensuring transparency. Rather than freezing withdrawals—a common reaction—Bybit kept them open and sourced Ether from partner exchanges to maintain customer confidence.

This approach has since become a reference point for incident response across major platforms. The event marked a shift toward maintaining operations and communication during crises instead of halting services entirely.

Bybit’s resilience and FATF’s global focus on the hack elevated Kim Jong Un’s indirect influence in the crypto sector. The scale, sophistication, and aftermath of the attack reshaped global regulation, technical security frameworks, and the way exchanges manage crises.