What’s Driving Bitcoin’s Price Increase Today?
Bitcoin’s price is experiencing upward momentum today, driven by ongoing developments related to the recent Bybit exchange hack. The crypto community remains optimistic as blockchain investigators continue efforts to trace and recover stolen funds.
Bybit Hack: Majority of Stolen Funds Still Traceable
On February 21, Bybit suffered the largest crypto exchange hack in history, losing over $1.4 billion in digital assets, including liquid-staked Ether (stETH) and Mantle Staked ETH (mETH). Blockchain security firms have identified North Korea’s Lazarus Group as the likely perpetrator behind the attack.
Despite the hackers’ attempts to obscure their tracks, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou confirmed that approximately 88.87% of the stolen funds remain traceable:
- 88.87% of the stolen $1.4 billion remains traceable.
- 7.59% of the funds have gone dark.
- 3.54% have been successfully frozen.
Zhou further detailed that around 86.29% (440,091 ETH, approximately $1.23 billion) of the stolen assets were converted into 12,836 BTC across 9,117 wallets, primarily using cryptocurrency mixers such as Wasabi, CryptoMixer, Railgun, and Tornado Cash.
Bounty Hunters Aid Recovery Efforts
Bybit has actively engaged the crypto community by offering substantial bounties to white hat hackers and blockchain investigators. The exchange has already paid over $2.2 million to 12 bounty hunters who provided valuable information leading to the freezing of stolen funds. Bybit is offering a reward of 10% of any recovered funds.
Security Flaws Highlighted by the Hack
The Bybit incident underscores vulnerabilities even in centralized exchanges with robust security measures. Analysts point out that the attackers employed sophisticated social engineering techniques, tricking authorized signers into approving malicious transactions from Bybit’s cold wallets.
Lucien Bourdon, an analyst at Trezor, emphasized:
“This incident is another stark reminder that even the strongest security measures can be undone by human error.”
Key Points:
- Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in the largest crypto exchange hack to date.
- North Korea’s Lazarus Group identified as the likely attacker.
- Nearly 89% of stolen funds remain traceable despite laundering attempts.
- Bybit has paid $2.2 million in bounties to aid recovery efforts.
- The hack highlights ongoing security vulnerabilities in centralized crypto exchanges.
The crypto industry continues to call for increased vigilance and more blockchain “bounty hunters” to combat sophisticated cyber threats.
