Chainalysis goes to school: Korean cops get a crypto crime-fighting field trip 📚

Blockchain security firm Chainalysis has signed a memorandum of understanding with South Korea's Korean National Police Agency (KNPA) to expand investigative training and tooling for law enforcement, the company said Wednesday. The agreement is aimed at building institutional capability inside South Korea's police force, with a particular focus on North Korea-linked crypto attacks, though the scope is broader, according to Chainalysis country director Ryan Kwon.

"While North Korean-driven attacks are understandably a national security focus, this partnership isn't designed around a single threat. It's fundamentally about building institutional capability," Kwon told Cointelegraph. Chainalysis said in a statement that Korean investigators need "global visibility into illicit fund flows" to pursue crypto cases effectively.

The partnership will give the KNPA access to personalized training content, professional certification programs and practical exercises from Chainalysis. South Korea's police have already leaned on the firm's tools in past operations, including the September dismantling of an international hacking organization accused of stealing approximately $30 million, an investigation that began in South Korea and ended with arrests in Thailand.

The MoU arrives amid a wave of North Korea-attributed crypto thefts. In April alone, attacks linked to North Korea topped $578 million, with Kelp DAO and the Drift Protocol among the targets. Research from CrowdStrike put 2025 losses from North Korea-affiliated hackers at $2 billion, up 51% year over year.

The agreement follows the recent launch of South Korea's Money Laundering Eradication Task Force, a multi-agency unit led by the Economic Crime Investigation Division to address crypto-based money laundering. The two initiatives together point to a widening law enforcement focus on digital asset crime in the country, though Chainalysis and the KNPA did not announce a specific timeline for rolling out the new training programs.