Crypto exchange Bybit said it had been hacked, leading analysts to estimate that it had lost nearly $1.5 billion (about Rs 130,06 crore) in tokens in the industry’s largest theft ever. Researchers believe that North Korean hackers may be responsible.
The exchange CEO announced this week in a post on Friday X that a hacker has taken control of one of Baybit’s offline Ethereum wallets. According to a post by chain analyst Zachxbt on Telegram, an estimated $1.46 billion (about Rs 12,664 crore) of assets leaked out of the wallet. Research firm Arkham Intelligence confirmed in an outflow of the exchange that approximately US$1.4 billion (approximately Rs 12,144 crore) had released on X on the “funds have begun to be transferred to new addresses for sale”.
According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the hacker is the largest crypto theft ever, surpassing the $611 million (about Rs 52,999 crore) of Poly Network in 2021. Rob Behnke, co-founder and executive chairman of blockchain security company Halborn.
Zhou broadcast live on social media platform X to alleviate customer concerns about hackers. He said the exchange has raised bridge loans with partners and has obtained about 80% of the funds to pay for the losses. Meanwhile, Bybit will try to recover funds and take necessary legal action against hackers.
“Your money is safe and our withdrawals are still open,” Zhou said on the live broadcast, wearing a black T-shirt with the Baibai logo. He added that the exchange processed more than 70% of all withdrawal requests after the hack. He added that at present, the exchange has not purchased any currency to cover stolen assets on the platform.
Bybit Eth Multisig Cold Wallet was transferred to our warm wallet about 1 hour ago. It seems this particular deal is Musk @Safe . But the signature message is to be changed…
– Ben Zhou (@Benbybit) February 21, 2025
Founded in 2018, Bybit is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, with an average daily trading volume of over US$36 billion (approximately Rs 3122,23 crore). According to CoinMartetCap’s reserve data, the exchange amount of the asset is about US$16.2 billion (about Rs 140,500 crore), and before being hacked, the asset had assets of approximately US$16.2 billion (about Rs 140,500 crore) of approximately US$16.2 billion (about Rs 140,500 crore) before being hacked. 9% of total assets.
Bloomberg reported in part that through volume, trading volume soared to the second seat in the world through volume, partly due to the gap left on the FTX exchange, a service that allows digital tokens to be used as collateral for margin trading Taste.
“When FTX collapsed, we saw an opportunity,” Zhou said in an interview with Bloomberg last year.
The funds stolen from Bybit on Friday included about $1.12 billion (about Rs 140,492 crore) worth of ether, the rest were ether derivatives, such as a well-known Steth, according to research firm Nansen. The tokens were first transferred to a wallet and then spread out into more than 40 wallets, Nansen said.
The attacker converted all the ether derivatives into ether and then transferred to more than 10 wallets in increments of US$27 million (approximately Rs 234 crore). Nansen added that funds are still in many wallets that receive tokens.
The technique is attributed to Arkham Intelligence to the North Korean group Lazarus.
Shahar Madar, vice president of security and trust products at Fireblocks, said the attack appears to be similar to that of Wazirx, a crypto exchange and loan agreement Radiant Capital.
“Both cases are ultimately attributed to North Korea,” Madal said in an interview. “In all cases, these are experienced people, which shows a high-level attacker.”
The day after theft, Ether fell by nearly 8%. Other cryptocurrencies are also lower, with Bitcoin down nearly 5% from its day-to-day high.
According to Coingecko, Ethena Labs’ USDE is a popular token among cryptocurrency traders whose role is like a “synthetic dollar” that briefly lost its trade value around 98 cents. The project said it was still fully collateral despite some transactions it had made on BYBIT.
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(This story has not been edited by Tech Word News’s staff and is automatically generated from the joint feed.)
