G7 leaders on 17 Jun formally included North Korea's cryptocurrency theft into their Leaders' Statement on Geopolitical Issues, adopted at Evian-Les-Bains, France, upgrading the issue from the chair's summary it occupied at the 2025 Kananaskis summit.
G7 Elevates North Korea Crypto Theft to Leaders' Statement as FATF Meets
18 June 2026 - 10:10 CEST
By Oihyun Kim
The text states that members "reiterate the need to jointly address North Korea's cryptocurrency thefts and cybercrimes," adding "cybercrimes" to widen the scope beyond asset theft to IT-worker infiltration and supply-chain attacks.
Évian widens the scope
The 2025 Kananaskis chair's summary cited cryptocurrency thefts by the DPRK, the formal acronym for North Korea; the Evian text upgrades the language to a full Leaders' Statement. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, attending her first G7, raised the matter directly at the 15 Jun working dinner, continuing the line her predecessor Shigeru Ishiba advanced at Kananaskis.
Bybit drives 2025 record
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis estimates DPRK-linked actors stole $2.02bn in cryptocurrency in 2025, up 51% year-on-year and accounting for 76% of the value stolen from centralized crypto services. The February 2025 hack of Dubai-based crypto exchange Bybit is reported to have accounted for $1.5bn.
The Evian text comes as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary meets in Paris from 15 to 19 Jun. Incoming FATF President Giles Thomson of the UK, a G7 member, takes office on 1 Jul.
The leaders' text stops short of naming a coordination mechanism, exchange screening standards or specific sanctions on mixing services that obscure transaction trails or cross-chain bridges.
