ROME — The FBI has alleged that hackers linked to North Korea have orchestrated one of the most significant cryptocurrency heists on record, taking approximately $1.5 billion worth of Ethereum from a firm based in Dubai.

This incident, which occurred earlier this month and targeted Bybit—one of the leading global cryptocurrency exchanges—marks another exploit attributed to a hacking consortium recognized by U.S. authorities as TraderTraitor and the Lazarus Group.

According to the FBI, these cybercriminals acquire digital assets by distributing cryptocurrency trading applications that contain malware designed to facilitate the theft of these assets.

In a public service announcement released online on Wednesday, the FBI stated that they believe these North Korean-affiliated hackers are “behind the recent theft.”

The FBI warned that the TraderTraitor group is acting swiftly, having already converted some of the stolen funds into Bitcoin and other digital currencies, spreading them across thousands of addresses on various blockchains. “These assets are expected to be further laundered and eventually converted into fiat currency,” the agency added.

North Korean state media has not commented on either the theft or the FBI’s allegations. The North Korean mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond promptly to a request for comments from The Associated Press.

Nevertheless, estimates indicate that North Korea has pilfered around $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency and other digital assets over the past five years, as reported by South Korea’s intelligence agency. This illegal funding source is critical for sustaining its struggling economy and financing its nuclear ambitions amid stringent U.N. sanctions and North Korea’s continuous border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A separate U.N. panel of experts revealed that they are investigating 58 suspected cyberattacks by North Korea from 2017 to 2023, resulting in losses of approximately $3 billion, allegedly to support the nation’s weapons of mass destruction initiatives.

Ben Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Bybit, acknowledged the FBI’s announcement on the social media platform X, linking to a site offering $140 million in rewards for tracking down the stolen cryptocurrency and freezing it through other exchanges.

Bybit has claimed that a routine transfer of Ethereum from a secure “cold” wallet was “compromised” by an attacker who diverted the funds to an unknown address. The blockchain analytics firm Certik characterized this incident as “the largest breach” in blockchain transaction history.

As a result of this theft, cryptocurrency prices have experienced a decline in recent days, as market participants have been unsettled by the hack, despite the industry receiving a boost from the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Bitcoin, the market leader, traded above $82,000 per coin on Thursday, down from a peak of over $100,000 a month prior.