Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has taken North Korea to court over the record $1.5 billion hack it suffered in 2025 and won an early order freezing some of the stolen funds. According to a Coi
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has taken North Korea to court over the record $1.5 billion hack it suffered in 2025 and won an early order freezing some of the stolen funds.
According to a CoinDesk report, the exchange filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against North Korea, its Reconnaissance General Bureau intelligence agency, and the Lazarus Group, the state-linked hacking outfit blamed for the theft. Bybit announced the move on Friday.
Related: Strategy stages comeback, surges to $100
The filing came with a preliminary injunction, a court order that bars a group of unidentified asset holders, listed in the case as "John Doe" defendants, from moving or selling the stolen assets while the case proceeds.
Bybit said the order is meant to preserve the identified funds as the litigation continues, and that it will seek further relief from the court.
Bybit cast the case as bigger than its own losses, describing the Lazarus breach as an attack on trust across the crypto industry, and said it has worked with investigators, regulators, law enforcement, and now the courts to hold the attackers accountable, according to the report.
The civil action is being pursued separately from ongoing U.S. criminal investigations.
The February 2025 breach saw roughly 400,000 ether and staked ether, worth about $1.5 billion, drained from the Dubai-based exchange, one of the largest cryptocurrency theft in history.
As per the data from analytics firm Chainalysis, the Bybit hack made up the bulk of the $2.02 billion North Korea stole in crypto last year, part of $6.75 billion its hackers have taken over time. North Korea is widely believed to use stolen crypto to fund its weapons program.
The theft also fits a widening pattern. According to data from TRM Labs, North Korea's hackers have stolen more than $6 billion in crypto through attributed incidents since 2017, and their share of total crypto hack losses has climbed sharply, from under 10% in 2020 to 64% in 2025 and 76% so far in 2026.
Related: Analyst outlines 2 market scenarios after July jobs data
