North Korea’s weapons program is also among crypto losers

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

One thing I have come to appreciate is that cryptocurrency isn't really very good at its killer use case: crime. Today's example comes from North Korea, where the regime's war chest of stolen cryptocurrency is suddenly worth a lot less than it used to be.

Here's an exceptionally funny sentence from Reuters:

Old, unlaundered North Korean crypto holdings monitored by the New York-based blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, which include funds stolen in 49 hacks from 2017 to 2021, have decreased in value from $170 million to $65 million since the beginning of the year, the company told Reuters.

That's a 61 percent loss, overall, for those of you keeping track at home. The crypto from one 2021 heist has lost at least 80 percent of its...

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