Bybit CEO Confirms $1.4 Billion Theft with Significant Untraceable Funds
Bybit reported a significant hack attributed to North Korean hackers, part of a $1.5 billion crypto heist, resulting in at least $300 million in unrecoverable funds. CEO Ben Zhou's update on social media revealed the total stolen amount is approximately $1.4 billion, mainly consisting of around 500,000 ETH.
Key Details from Bybit's Update
- 68.57% of stolen funds are traceable on the blockchain.
- 27.59% of funds have become untraceable.
- 3.84% of the funds are frozen, likely due to law enforcement actions.
The untraceable assets have largely been funneled into mixers, obscuring their origin, and then moved through bridges to peer-to-peer (P2P) and over-the-counter (OTC) platforms. Wasabi Mixer, linked to the DPRK, was identified as a key player in the laundering process.
Stolen Crypto Breakdown
- 432,748 ETH (84.45% of total), valued at approximately $1.21 billion, has been converted to Bitcoin via Thorchain.
- 67.25% of this amount (342,975 ETH) has been exchanged for 10,003 BTC across 35,772 wallets.
- 5,991 ETH remains on the Ethereum blockchain across 12,490 wallets.
- 944 BTC (6.34%) has been sent to Wasabi Mixer.
- 531 BTC has been converted back to Ethereum via Thorchain.
Over the last 60 days, Bybit has received 5,443 bounty reports related to the hack, with 70 validated. Zhou called for community assistance in tracing the remaining stolen funds.
