North Korea Surpasses El Salvador in Bitcoin Holdings, Fueled by Bybit Hack

2025年03月18日

Key Takeaways:

  • North Korea’s Bitcoin holdings now surpass those of El Salvador and Bhutan.
  • The Lazarus Group, linked to North Korea, converted assets from the Bybit hack into Bitcoin.
  • These cyber activities contribute to North Korea’s funding of its weapons programs.

North Korea surpassed El Salvador and Bhutan in Bitcoin (BTC) holdings after the Lazarus hacker group converted stolen assets from the Bybit hack into Bitcoin, according to Arkham data as of March 17.

Arkham data shows that Lazarus, responsible for the record $1.5 billion Bybit hack, converted the stolen Ether to 13,518 Bitcoin (worth $1.14 billion).

The group also holds nearly 13,791 Ether and 5,022 Binance Coin (BNB), valued at $26.68 million and $3.16 million, respectively.

Lazarus Group’s crypto holdings. Source: Arkham

These holdings position North Korea ahead of Bhutan’s 10,635 mined Bitcoin and El Salvador’s 6,118 Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Treasuries data places the US, China, the UK, and Ukraine ahead, with reserves of 198,109, 190,000, 61,245, and 46,351 BTC.

In terms of Bitcoin holdings, North Korea is the fifth largest country in the world. / Source: Bitcoin Treasuries

The Scale of North Korean Cybercrime

North Korea’s vast wealth in cryptocurrencies stems from years of cyberattacks and crypto heists, including the 2024 DMM Bitcoin exploit in Japan and the 2022 Ronin Network breach, where Lazarus stole $308 million and over $600 million, respectively.

The Lazarus Group refers to a large subset of state-sponsored cyber activities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), operating as an integral wing of North Korea’s central foreign intelligence agency, the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB).

Chainalysis’ Crypto Crime 2025 Report shows North Korean hackers stole $660.5 million in 2023 and $1.34 billion in 2024, marking a 102.88% year-over-year increase.

One of the most recent examples of North Korea’s expanding cyber operations is the Bybit hack.

Bybit Attack: North Korea’s Massive Crypto Theft

The dramatic increase in North Korea’s Bitcoin holdings is directly linked to the February 2025 attack on the Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.

The Lazarus Group organized the theft of over 400,000 Ether from Bybit’s secure multi-signature cold wallet.

Following the theft, Lazarus employed sophisticated techniques to launder the stolen Ether and convert it into Bitcoin.

The group exploited decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols like THORChain, which faced criticism for lacking strong anti-crime protections.

This allowed Lazarus to obscure the origins of the stolen funds and facilitate their conversion into Bitcoin.

This attack has consequences beyond Bybit’s financial losses.

According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), proceeds from cyberattacks, along with other illicit wealth generated by North Korean-funded syndicates, fund North Korea’s nuclear missile program and pose a major threat to international security.

The post North Korea Surpasses El Salvador in Bitcoin Holdings, Fueled by Bybit Hack appeared first on Cryptonews.

Ripple’s new trademark filing sparks speculation on crypto custody expansion

2025年03月18日

San Francisco-based fintech company Ripple Labs has filed a trademark application for “Ripple Custody.” The revelation has led to speculations that the firm wants to launch a crypto wallet or custodial services.

According to the application, the firm applied for the trademark on February 25. The accompanying statement explaining the term suggests that it will apply to downloaded software, financial services, peer-to-peer network computer services, and cloud software that can be used for the custody, storage, and transmission of cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies.

One of the statement reads:

“Financial services, namely, custodial services in the nature of maintaining storage and possession of cryptocurrency, fiat currency, virtual currency, and digital currency for financial management purposes.”

These statements, which describe the potential application of the term, have led to speculation about what Ripple might be planning in the coming months. Most times, a trademark application such as this suggests that a company is finalizing its plans to unveil a product.

In 2024, Ripple for trademarks for Ripple Payments, RLUSD, and Ripple USD, a few months before launching the RLUSD stablecoin.

Meanwhile, the news of the application has attracted different reactions from the XRP community. Noah Christopher on X believes that Ripple is expanding into custody and payments to boost its adoption, while Faril speculates that the US might rely on Ripple to custody its crypto reserves.

However, some users have noted that a Ripple Custody app already exists in the App Store. It is simply an authenticator app for institutional customers signing transactions using Metaco to custody their assets. Ripple bought the digital asset custody firm Metaco in  2023.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has already received and acknowledged the trademark application but has not assigned it to an examiner. The approval process for a trademark in the US only takes a few months unless it is contested.

XRP remains in the green despite a turbulent year

While there is no clarity yet on whether Ripple is planning a custody product or has already launched one, its XRP token remains in the only top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap with some gains year-to-date. Per CoinMarketCap data, the token is up more than 1% YTD after losing more than 10% of its value in the past 90 days.

Although this might seem inconsequential, it represents a much better performance than Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, BNB, Cardano ADA, DOGE, and Tron TRX, all of which have been down between 14% and 46% since January 2025.

XRP’s positive performance is due to various factors, including the expectation that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon drop the lawsuit against Ripple over the token’s status. With the regulator dropping crypto-related actions against Coinbase, Uniswap, and Robinhood, many believe that Ripple is next.

XRP ETF proposal
XPR ETF for 2025 is at 75% Yes (Source: Polymarket)

The market expectations are clearly evident in the Polymarket contract on whether the SEC will approve an XRP exchange-traded fund in 2025. Presently, there is a 75% chance of that approval, with a 5% increase in the last 24 hours alone, showing positive sentiment.

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Canary Capital adds SUI ETF to its pile of SEC altcoin applications

2025年03月18日

Canary Capital filed an S-1 registration form with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as part of its application to issue an SUI exchange-traded fund (ETF). Canary is a frequent crypto ETF applicant. This would reportedly be the first SUI ETF in the United States. 

The Canary SUI ETF would be structured as a trust. Canary stated that it intended to stake some of its SUI through providers that will enable the trust to establish validator nodes. Staking leads to possible taxation in connection with staking rewards.

Investors can get SUI in different ways

SUI is the native token of the Sui network, a layer-1 blockchain that was developed by Mysten Labs. According to the S-1, its transaction speed and scalability make it suitable for gaming and high-frequency trading.

Canary telegraphed its intentions to create the ETF when it registered a Canary SUI ETF statutory trust in Delaware on March 6. Before an ETF can be launched, the exchange that will host it has to file form 19b-4 with the SEC. That form requests changes in the rules for the exchange that would allow the new ETF to be listed. Canary did not specify an exchange in its S-1.

Although this is the first suggestion of a SUI ETF in the United States, exchange-traded product issuer Valour has a SUI product on Sweden’s Spotlight Stock Market denominated in Swedish kronor. In addition, Switzerland-based 21Shares offers a SUI staking ETP.

VanEck offers a SUI exchange-traded note (ETN). An ETN also tracks an asset but, unlike an ETF, the issuer does not own any of the assets. Sui and Franklin Templeton announced a “strategic partnership” in November, although it was not clear what the goals of that partnership were.

Grayscale has a SUI exchange-traded note (ETN) The ETN tracks the price of SUI but is a closed fund, whereas an ETF is open-ended.

On March 6, World Liberty Financial, the decentralized finance protocol linked to the family of U.S. President Donald Trump, announced that it would include SUI in its strategic reserves and it explore product development opportunities with Sui.

Canary Capital has big altcoin ambitions

The SUI ETF is not the only first Nashville-based Canary has stocked up. In December, it was the first to apply for an LTC (Litecoin) ETF. Canary Capital has filed with the SEC for several crypto ETFs, including Hedera, Solana, and XRP. Canary also runs a digital asset fund that invests in digital assets and crypto equity funds whose prices have fallen below their net asset value.

Altcoin ETFs may become more common. For example, Grayscale has applied for Litecoin, Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin ETFs, while 21Shares is also looking into Solana, XRP, and Polkadot ETFs.

Hashdex applied to the SEC to expand its Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF to include Solana, XRP, Cardano, Chainlink, Avalanche, Litecoin and Uniswap in addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

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