“Bybit’s $5.3B Vanishing Act: Magic or Mayhem?”
Update Feb. 22, 1:45 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include a statement from Bybit CEO Ben Zhou. Because apparently, he had some explaining to do. 🤷♂️
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has somehow managed to keep its reserves above its liabilities, even after a $1.4 billion hack and a $5.3 billion asset disappearing act, thanks to some wizardry from DefiLlama data. 🧙♂️
The Feb. 21 hack was like the biggest bank robbery ever, but in crypto. Attackers made off with over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (STETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH), and other ERC-20 tokens. It’s like they hit the jackpot! 🎰
Since the heist, Bybit’s total assets have taken a nosedive, plummeting by over $5.3 billion. DefiLlama data shows it, but do we really want to see? 🙈
Despite the hack and the asset freefall, Bybit’s exchange reserves are still somehow above its liabilities. Hacken, their independent Proof-of-Reserve (PoR) auditor, confirmed it. In a Feb. 21 post on X, Hacken said:
“Today’s hack was massive—a tough hit for the industry. But here’s the bottom line: Bybit’s reserves still exceed its liabilities. As their independent PoR auditor, we’ve confirmed that user funds remain fully backed.” Because apparently, math is magic. 🧚♂️
Bybit handled more than 350,000 withdrawal requests in 10 hours, completing 99.9% of them by 1:45 am UTC. Ben Zhou, Bybit co-founder and CEO, boasted about it in a Feb. 22 X post. Basically, they were like superheroes, but with laptops. 🦸♂️
“Although we have been hit by the worst hack possibly in the history of any medians (banks, crypto, finance), But all Bybit functions and product remain functional, the Whole team had been awake all night to process and answer client questions and concerns,” Zhou wrote. Because sleep is for the weak. 💪
The Bybit hack alone is responsible for more than half of the $2.3 billion stolen in crypto-related hacks in 2024. That’s a lot of crypto gone_missing. 🕵️♂️
The $1.4B Bybit hack: What you need to know
Blockchain security analysts, like Arkham Intelligence and onchain sleuth ZachXBT, traced the Bybit attack to the North Korean state-affiliated Lazarus Group. They’re like the Bond villains of crypto. 🕵️♂️
Meir Dolev, co-founder and chief technical officer at Cyvers, said the attack was similar to other big hacks. Basically, it’s like they used the same playbook. 📚
“It seems that Bybit’s ETH multisig cold wallet was compromised through a deceptive transaction that tricked signers into unknowingly approving a malicious smart contract logic change.” Because who reads the fine print, right? 🤖
This allowed the hacker to gain control of the cold wallet and transfer all ETH to an unknown address,” Dolev told CryptoMoon. It’s like they just vanished into thin air. 🌫️
Bybit’s Ether cold wallet storage provider, Safe, was breached, but the incident didn’t affect the exchange’s internal systems, according to Bybit CEO Ben Zhou. Phew, that’s a relief. 🙌
The attack shows that even centralized exchanges with strong security measures can be
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2025-02-22 16:53