Dubai, Feb 24: According to Bybit, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange, hackers on last Friday stole digital assets worth over $1.5 billion in what is being seen as the largest crypto heist to date. Hackers reportedly targeted its cold wallet of Ethereum, an offline system for secure storage of cryptocurrencies and encryption keys.
Consequently, the value of Ethereum, the second most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, dropped by 4 per cent to over $2,641.41 per coin, according to the BBC.
As reports of the theft emerged, users rushed to withdraw their crypto investments from Bybit soon fearing that the crypto exchange would face potential insolvency issues .
They stole tokens that were primarily in ether, transferred them to multiple wallets and used various platforms to liquidate them, Bybit said.
After the heist, Ben Zhou, CEO, Bybit, informed users that the crypto exchange would refund victims whose crypto funds in storage were affected by the hack.
“Please rest assured that all other cold wallets are secure. […] All withdrawals are NORMAL,” Zhou wrote in a post on X.
“Bybit is solvent even if this hack loss is not recovered, all of clients assets are 1 to 1 backed, we can cover the loss,” he added.
In another post on X, the company said the incident has been reported to the authorities. Adding, “We have fortunately worked quickly and extensively with on-chain analytics providers to identify and demix the implicated addresses. These actions will mitigate and counter the ability of bad actors in disposing and dumping the ETH on the markets via legitimate marketplace narrowing the available outlets of disposal,”
Founded in 2018, Bybit holds over $20 billion in assets and has more than 60 million users worldwide. US President Donald Trump and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel were reportedly among its early investors.
Who was behind Bybit heist? According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the attack is linked to the Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacking collective that has become notorious for exploiting security vulnerabilities and siphoning billions of dollars in stolen crypto funds.
The state-sponsored hacking group reportedly uses sophisticated methods to obscure the flow of funds and launder the stolen loot, which is also used to finance North Korea’s dictatorship regime.
In 2017, the Lazarus Group reportedly hacked four South Korean crypto exchanges and stole $200 million worth of bitcoin.
Despite the recent shift in cryptocurrency markets, large-scale thefts continue to be a fundamental risk associated with digital assets. In 2021, hackers stole $611 million worth of crypto from Poly Network. Around $570 million worth of Binance’s BNB token was stolen a year later.
The Bybit crypto heist surpasses a previous record in 2022 when hackers stole $620m (£490m) of Ethereum and USD Coin from the Ronin Network. In 2019, the Binance exchange suffered a major crypto heist with hackers making off with $41 million worth of Bitcoin. (Indian Express)
