Commentary
North Korea stole over $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency, which funds approximately 50 percent of its nuclear weapons development, according to a Wall Street Journal report on June 11.
The massive crypto haul is in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars that the rogue state, supported by Russia and China, has stolen or ransomed in traditional currencies. North Korea’s global hacker army facilitates the thefts, the latest iteration in its long criminal history that stretches back to its 1970s counterfeiting.
Cryptocurrency also facilitates China’s deadly fentanyl crime.
According to a May 23 report by Elliptic, companies in China that ship fentanyl and fentanyl precursors accept tens of millions of dollars in crypto payments. Ninety percent of companies that Elliptic researchers received offers from accepted crypto as payment, according to the study….