North Korea has been conducting crypto mining and continues to be accused of crypto heists to make up for the pandemic-related economic slowdown. Shockingly, North Korea has used the stolen cryptocurrencies to support its nuclear and missile programs. In an unexpected turn of events, a small subset of crypto fanatics have hailed this as win for the mainstream adoption of crypto.
Per UN and FBI reports, North Korea-connected hackers are believed to have stolen $800 million from crypto exchanges and DeFI platforms since 2021. This includes exploiting security weaknesses in gaming platforms like Axie Infinity for trading NFTs. The UN report states that despite existing sanctions, North Korea continues to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile infrastructure using cryptocurrency hacks and mining.
A small but vocal subset of crypto fanatics have hailed this as a win for crypto adoption having finally be used as a source of revenue by a nation-state. Twitter user “Pomp” – host of a popular Bitcoin podcast – stated, “NK is working fast to understand existing security standards and how to exploit them. Nuclear acceleration aside, this could be an opportunity for the rest of the world to find existing infrastructure weaknesses and learn through innovation. Bitcoin is inevitable”.
Mike Saylor, who claims Bitcoin will go to a million dollars, tweeted “The only thing functioning as money everywhere in the world today is #bitcoin. Look at North Korea”. This stirred a debate between level-headed bitcoiners who said this was not a positive story and Saylor-like crypto fanatics who sided with North Korea and El Salvador, happy that crypto is being used in some way or another. “Illegal activity has always taken place in crypto but the technology supporting it these days is solid! Just look at the Silk Road history. What you have to see here is banking the unbanked, and breaking away from the Federal Reserve bro” said @CryptoJoeBTC in one of the replies.
Kim Jong Un and North Korea were briefly trending on Twitter earlier this week as this news provided an opportunity for crypto fans to hype up Bitcoin and pump up the price in yet another cycle.
