So, guess what? The Bybit hack was like the biggest game of hide and seek ever, and it turns out, most of the stolen loot is still playing tag! 🎉 Blockchain detectives are on the case, trying to freeze and recover those funds like they’re trying to catch a runaway cat. 🐱
On February 21, the crypto world was shaken to its core when Bybit lost a whopping $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (stETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH), and other digital goodies. I mean, who knew crypto could be so… *dramatic*?
And guess who’s behind this grand theft? The infamous Lazarus Group from North Korea! They’ve been swapping the funds around like they’re playing poker, trying to make them untraceable. Spoiler alert: it’s not working! 😏
According to Ben Zhou, the co-founder and CEO of Bybit, over 88% of that stolen cash is still traceable. He shared this juicy tidbit in a post on X:
“Total hacked funds of USD 1.4bn around 500k ETH. 88.87% remain traceable, 7.59% have gone dark, 3.54% have been frozen.”
He also mentioned that a staggering 86.29% (that’s 440,091 ETH, or about $1.23 billion for those counting) has been converted into 12,836 BTC across 9,117 wallets. That’s like a game of musical chairs, but with wallets! 🎶
Fast forward nearly a month, and the Lazarus Group managed to launder all the stolen funds through THORChain in just 10 days. Talk about efficiency! 🏃♂️💨
But don’t lose hope just yet! Blockchain security experts are still optimistic that some of these funds can be frozen and recovered. Fingers crossed! 🤞
Bybit’s Bounty for Bounty Hunters
In a plot twist worthy of a Netflix series, Bybit is on the hunt for more blockchain “bounty hunters” and ethical hackers to tackle the North Korean menace. Because, you know, who doesn’t want to be a hero? 🦸♂️
Decoding transaction patterns through crypto mixers is like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded. Ben Zhou said:
“In the past 30 days, 5012 bounty reports were received of which 63 were valid bounty reports. We welcome more reports, we need more bounty hunters that can decode mixers as we need a lot of help there down the road.”
Bybit has already shelled out over $2.2 million to 12 bounty hunters for tips that could lead to freezing those funds. They’re offering 10% of the recovered funds as a bounty. It’s like a treasure hunt, but with more spreadsheets! 🗺️
This whole Bybit saga is a reminder that even the most fortified castles can be breached by clever little thieves. Lucien Bourdon, an analyst at Trezor, put it perfectly:
“This incident is another stark reminder that even the strongest security measures can be undone by human error.”
Apparently, the attackers used some fancy social engineering trickery to fool signers into approving a malicious transaction that drained crypto from one of Bybit’s cold wallets. Classic! 🙄
And just to put things into perspective, this hack is more than double the size of the $600 million Poly Network hack from August 2021. So, yeah, it’s officially the largest crypto exchange breach to date. 🎉
Read More
- HBAR PREDICTION. HBAR cryptocurrency
- COW PREDICTION. COW cryptocurrency
- Invincible Season 4: What We Know About Release Date and Plot Speculation!
- MNT PREDICTION. MNT cryptocurrency
- IMX PREDICTION. IMX cryptocurrency
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows Release Date, Pre-Orders, and Everything Else You Need to Know
- ATOM PREDICTION. ATOM cryptocurrency
- ICP PREDICTION. ICP cryptocurrency
- Bucky and Walker: Captain America’s Allies Turned Nightmares in Thunderbolts!
- Olivia Culpo Reveals Why She Couldn’t Exercise First 4 Months of Pregnancy
2025-03-20 12:02