Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, a new report from CertiK found North Korea-linked hackers stole about $2.06 billion of the $3.4 billion lost in crypto hacks in 2025, Ether treasury firm Bitmine says it has slowed down its Ether buys, and ethics concerns among Senate Democrats loom over this week’s markup of a crypto market structure bill.

CertiK report reveals "industrialized" scale of North Korea's crypto thefts

CertiK says North Korea-linked hackers stole about 60% of the value lost to crypto hacks in 2025, with proceeds used to help fund the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, highlighting the country's growing reliance on digital assets to generate hard currency.

The findings, shared with Cointelegraph on Tuesday, come from a new Skynet report that attributes roughly $2.06 billion of an estimated $3.4 billion in 2025 crypto security losses to groups tied to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, across 79 of 656 incidents documented that year.

Between 2016 and early 2026, DPRK-linked actors stole an estimated $6.75 billion in cryptocurrency across 263 documented incidents, the report says, citing findings by independent onchain researcher Taylor Monahan.

CertiK’s analysis concludes that North Korea has “industrialized” crypto theft into a core state revenue mechanism, with open-source estimates showing how these operations represent a substantial share of the regime’s external income, as digital asset theft becomes a sustained revenue stream for the country.

Total DPRK crypto theft over the years. Source: CertiK/Skynet

The report also identifies a shift from opportunistic hot wallet compromises to fewer, higher-value operations that target the largest pools of capital.

In 2025, DPRK-linked groups were behind about 60% of the value stolen but only around 12% of total incidents, highlighting what CertiK describes as a focus on “precision and scale.”

Bitmine slows down on Ether buys

Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies said on Monday it was slowing the pace of its Ether purchases after previously increasing its buying rate and acquiring more than 100,000 tokens over the last three weeks.

Bitmine said on Monday that it purchased 26,659 ETH over the last week, down from the over 100,000 tokens a week it was previously maintaining, but that it was still on track for its goal to buy 5% of the token’s 120.7 million circulating supply by the end of the year.

“We have decided to slow down our pace of weekly accumulation from >100,000 per week as we originally targeted reaching the ‘alchemy of 5%’ target in late 2026,” Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said. “Our previous pace of >100k weekly buys would have us reach 5% by mid-July.”

Bitmine estimates it will reach its goal of holding 5% of the Ether supply by the end of 2026. Source: Bitmine

Lee also doubled down on his belief that a so-called “crypto spring has started and pointed to Ether’s price rising in correlation with software stocks as further evidence. 

“Crypto spring has commenced and we wanted to highlight the importance of owning ETH as a source of diversification, and the likely drivers of this coming 'crypto bull' cycle,” he added.

Ethics a sticking point as Senate crypto bill goes to markup

With lawmakers on the US Senate Banking Committee set to consider a markup on a cryptocurrency market structure bill this week, some Democrats are holding the line — and potentially their votes — on ethics provisions.

The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY), passed by the US House of Representatives in July 2025, is scheduled for a markup in the Banking Committee on Thursday after months of delays due to concerns about language on stablecoin yield, tokenized equities, ethics and more issues related to the crypto industry.

Although the Senate Agriculture Committee passed its version of the bill in a January markup, the legislation must pass through both panels to address different aspects of securities and commodities laws.

“Negotiations continue to be positive, and I remain confident we can get a bipartisan bill over the finish line this Congress,” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told Cointelegraph. “Americans deserve a well-regulated market with strong consumer protections and real ethics reforms so politicians can’t cash in on their insider status for personal gain.”

Prediction market sentiment on CLARITY Act passage. Source: Polymarket