Bybit Experiences $5.5 Billion in Outflows Following Major Hack
Bybit experienced over $5.5 billion in outflows following a hack by the North Korean Lazarus Group, which compromised its ether cold wallet and resulted in approximately 70% of client ether being stolen.
Key points:
- Total assets on Bybit wallets fell from $16.9 billion to $11.2 billion.
- CEO Ben Zhou initiated an emergency response to process withdrawals and inquiries.
- Most users withdrew stablecoins instead of ether.
- Bybit secured a loan to fulfill withdrawal requests amidst the crisis.
- Safe, a decentralized custody protocol integrated with Bybit, temporarily halted smart wallet functionalities for security reasons.
- $3 billion in USDT was locked in Safe's wallet during the incident.
- Bybit engaged authorities and blockchain analysis firms to recover stolen funds.
- Discussion of a potential Ethereum "rollback" to recover funds was initiated but remains uncertain and controversial.
- The cause of the hack is still under investigation, focusing on the Safe cold wallet.