N. Korea-linked crypto theft falls to one-third of last year’s level, but report dismisses weakened capability (123rf) North Korea-linked hacking groups were responsible for about two-thirds of cryptocurrency stolen worldwide in the first half of this year, a report by San Francisco-based blockchain analysis firm TRM Labs showed Friday.According to the report, North Korea-linked actors stole $643 million worth of cryptocurrency during the January-June period, accounting for 66.2 percent of the $972 million in global crypto hack losses.TRM Labs attributed much of the stolen value to two major decentralized finance attacks in April — a $285 million breach of Drift, a Solana-based decentralized derivatives exchange, and a $292 million hack targeting KelpDAO, an Ethereum liquid restaking protocol.The two cases alone caused combined losses of $577 million, or nearly 60 percent of the $972 million in crypto hack losses recorded globally in the first half, according to TRM Labs.The amount stolen by North Korea-linked hackers was down from about $1.7 billion in the same period last year. But TRM Labs said the decline should not be read as a weakening of North Korea’s cyber capabilities, noting that this year saw fewer mega-scale hacks than last year.The firm said that the figures only reflect cryptocurrency thefts linked to hacking activity, and exclude other illicit revenue streams such as phishing, crypto scams and the use of North Korean IT workers posing as foreign employees. That means Pyongyang’s actual crypto-related revenue could be much higher, it added.The findings come as South Korea, the United States and Japan step up coordination against North Korea’s cyber operations. The three countries held the fifth meeting of their trilateral working group on North Korean cyber threats in Washington on June 25 to 26.On Wednesday, Voice of America Korea reported a US State Department spokesperson as saying that “in recent years, North Korea has increasingly turned to cybercrime to evade international sanctions and finance its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.”The spokesperson added that “cryptocurrency theft and money laundering have become a significant part of this strategy.”Pyongyang has denied involvement in illicit cyber activity.