Thought Leadership
One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Bybit, has fallen victim to a serious hacker attack. The unknown attackers stole digital currencies worth around 1.5 billion US dollars.
As Bybit announced on Friday, the attackers managed to manipulate a routine Ethereum transaction between different wallets. The stolen crypto assets were transferred to a previously unidentified wallet address. The theft, which is estimated at 1.5 billion US dollars, is the largest cryptocurrency hack of all time.
The crypto exchange immediately tried to limit the damage. The company assured customers that their funds on the platform were safe. However, the news of the hack led to a wave of withdrawal requests, which may currently result in delays in processing.
Bybit CEO Ben Zhou was combative and emphasized his company’s solvency: “We can cope with the loss,” he explained on social media. Even if the stolen cryptocurrencies cannot be recovered, the company’s liquidity is not at risk.
North Korean hackers in particular have specialized in such attacks in recent years. As recently as December 2024, the FBI, the US Department of Defense and the Japanese National Police issued a joint statement blaming North Korean actors for the theft of 308 million dollars from a Japanese crypto company.
Crypto expert ZachXBT linked the $1.44 billion hack of crypto exchange Bybit to the infamous Lazarus Group, which is responsible for some of the largest attacks on digital asset platforms.
What is Bybit?
Bybit is one of the largest trading platforms for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Dubai. Every day, cryptocurrencies worth several billion dollars are traded here. Here, you can not only directly buy and sell cryptocurrencies but also bet on rising or falling prices. The platform is particularly popular with users because it’s easy to use.
To protect their customers’ money, Bybit stores most of the cryptocurrencies offline – meaning without an internet connection. This method is considered very secure because hackers cannot access funds stored offline. Despite these security measures, Bybit has now become the victim of a sophisticated hacking attack.
