North Korea’s Kim Jong Un stole Bybit’s crypto billions to finance his best friend Putin’s Ukraine war

For the past eight years at least, the president of the United States has tried his best to make sure the world knows he’s such great friends with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. But with each passing day, that relationship looks more and more one-sided.

Sure, the Russian might appear to like Mr. Donald Trump, but he definitely doesn’t respect him. I mean, why would he? That guy has been embarrassing himself on the world stage with blatant lies about fellow leaders every single day, most of which are about Putin’s so-called best friend, the Chinese president Xi Jinping.

President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin arrive to attend a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki 2018. Source: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP

Putin also has another close friend, perhaps one he even likes more than Jinping, and he really does like Jinping very much. But the person he seems to be at his happiest with every time they get together is North Korea’s supreme leader Mr. Kim Jong Un.

And this is where our story begins.

The most dangerous friendship in the world

You might remember that infamous trip Putin took to North Korea last year, where he went on a long drive with Kim in the car he bought him and the two were pictured talking and laughing real hard with each other, though I always wonder how they were able to communicate since allegedly, neither knows the other’s language. See below:

Presidents Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. Source: Russian TV (RT)

But hey, it was a great photo op and Putin had the rest of his peers fearing him a little more after that. Biden and NATO were trying to choke off Putin’s power, so a big photo-op with Kim was like a slap in their faces.

Now this author believes that it was during that date that the boys had a big military discussion. Putin needed men, weapons, and loyalty for the Ukraine mess he started. Kim needed a favor. The $1.5 billion boost from Bybit’s crypto vault made sure he could deliver both.

The two agreed that North Korean fighters would show up on the ground in Ukraine. And when Russia reclaimed the Kursk region a few days back, Putin made it official.

In a statement released just yesterday, Putin said, “Our Korean friends acted out of a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine comradeship.” He praised their “heroism, high level of special training and self-sacrifice,” saying they fought “shoulder to shoulder” with Russian troops.

While all that’s going down, the U.S., Ukraine, Europe, and Russia are still kicking around ceasefire talks. Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius tore into the American proposals, calling them “a capitulation” on German TV.

Pistorius said Ukraine could have taken that garbage deal a year ago and saved itself a lot of pain. “I cannot discern any added value,” Pistorius said, trashing Trump’s so-called peace offering.

Kim turns stolen crypto into a war machine

As I reported earlier this month, North Korea’s military isn’t funded by coal or taxes anymore. It’s crypto, stolen by a full-blown cyber army. The Lazarus Group, North Korea’s top hacker squad, runs an operation that is military-grade, and they’ve made off with more than $6 billion in crypto over the past decade.

All this crypto loot keeps Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship alive. Sanctions? Doesn’t matter when you’re stealing your paycheck. His nuclear weapons program, his army, and his rule over North Korea are all propped up by digital theft.

There are more than 8,000 hackers working full-time under Kim’s rule, organized into military-style squads. They aren’t just some nerds. They’re soldiers with keyboards. From a young age, North Korean kids who show talent in math or science get pulled aside and trained to become hackers. No side jobs, no second chances.

Cryptocurrency theft by North Korean hackers in 2025. Source: Chainalysis

Their lives might look better than the average North Korean, but screw up once, and you’re done. Elma Duval, co-author of a report from Seoul-based advocacy group PScore, said former IT workers admitted that failure meant physical punishment. Hack or get beaten – that’s the deal, but hey, it is a dictatorship after all.

Kim Jong Il, the late North Korean leader, once said wars of the future would be fought with computers. His son, Kim Jong Un, took that prophecy and built an entire national strategy out of it.

So now, thanks to Bybit’s missing $1.5 billion and the nonstop work of the Lazarus Group, Putin’s war in Ukraine gets another shot of blood money. And Trump is probably going to continue embarrassing himself by flaunting friendships with men who don’t even consider him to be their equal.

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