Bybit Reports 89% of Stolen $1.4B Crypto Still Traceable After Hack
Nearly a month after suffering the largest crypto exchange hack in history, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou announced that approximately 89% of the stolen $1.4 billion remains traceable. Blockchain investigators continue efforts to freeze and recover the stolen funds.
Key Points:
- Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in digital assets, including liquid-staked Ether (stETH) and Mantle Staked ETH (mETH), in a cyberattack on February 21.
- North Korea’s Lazarus Group is suspected to be behind the attack.
- 88.87% of the stolen funds remain traceable, 7.59% have gone dark, and 3.54% have been frozen.
- 86.29% of the stolen ETH (around $1.23 billion) was converted into Bitcoin (BTC) and distributed across thousands of wallets, primarily through mixers like Wasabi, CryptoMixer, Railgun, and Tornado Cash.
Bybit Offers Bounties to Recover Funds
Bybit has paid over $2.2 million to 12 bounty hunters who provided valuable information leading to the freezing of stolen funds. The exchange is offering a bounty of 10% of recovered funds to incentivize ethical hackers and blockchain investigators.
Challenges and Security Concerns
Decoding transaction patterns through cryptocurrency mixers remains the biggest challenge in tracing stolen crypto. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou emphasized the need for more blockchain “bounty hunters” and ethical hackers to combat illicit activities.
Analysts highlight that even centralized exchanges with robust security measures remain vulnerable to sophisticated cyberattacks. The Bybit hack involved social engineering tactics, tricking signers into approving malicious transactions from cold wallets.
This incident surpasses the previous largest crypto hack—the $600 million Poly Network breach in 2021—making it the largest crypto exchange hack to date.
