Crypto hackers steal over $1 billion

A group of hackers has managed to carry out the largest cryptocurrency heist in history, stealing approximately $1.4 billion from the Bybit crypto exchange.

Hackers compromised an offline “cold wallet” that stored Ethereum and stole 400,000 ETH, CEO Ben Zhou confirmed.

During the incident, a cold wallet allegedly transferred funds to an online “hot wallet.” The cold wallet required the approval of multiple private keys to complete the transaction.

“Unfortunately, this transaction was manipulated by a sophisticated attack that obfuscated the signing interface and displayed the correct address, while also altering the underlying logic of the smart contract,” Bybit said on Xu. “As a result, the attacker was able to take control of the affected ETH cold wallet and transfer its holdings to an unidentified address.”

The statement said that hackers gained remote access to computers at the exchange. The company is still investigating how the breach occurred, but the amount lost far exceeds the previous record for the largest cryptocurrency heist. In 2022, the Ronin Network lost $620 million in Ethereum (and USD Coin), with the alleged perpetrators believed to be members of the North Korean Lazarus Group.

Bybit has hired cybersecurity firms to help it investigate the breach. This includes tracking where the stolen funds were transferred by monitoring the Ethereum blockchain. One of the investigators (ZachXBT) says he has found evidence linking the heist to North Korean hackers and details how the stolen funds were laundered.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Bybit calms the passions and assures his clients that their money is safe.

“Bybit has a total of $20 billion in customer funds,” he added. “If, unfortunately, we are unable to recover this money, the Bybit exchange will cover it through our reserves.”