Legit.ng journalist Victor Enengedi has over a decade's experience covering Energy, MSMEs, Technology, Banking and the Economy.

Bybit, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange, has suffered a major hack, losing $1.5 billion in digital assets. This is believed to be the biggest crypto theft in history.

Hackers gained access to Bybit’s cold wallet, an offline storage system meant to keep assets secure.

Most of the stolen funds, mainly in ether, were quickly moved between multiple wallets and converted into cash through different platforms.

This theft is even bigger than the previous record when hackers stole $620 million worth of Ethereum and USD coins from the Ronin Network in 2022.

Blockchain analysis firms, including Elliptic and Arkham Intelligence, tracked the stolen crypto as it was transferred and sold off.

According to Elliptic, this hack is much larger than previous ones, such as the $611 million stolen from Poly Network in 2021 and the $570 million taken from Binance in 2022.

Investigators later connected the attack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group, a state-backed hacking team known for stealing billions from the crypto industry.

This group often exploits security weaknesses to fund North Korea’s government, using advanced techniques to hide their tracks.

Following the breach, many Bybit users rushed to withdraw their funds, fearing the exchange might collapse.

However, Bybit's CEO, Zhou, stated that withdrawals have now stabilized. To reassure customers, he announced that Bybit had secured a loan from unnamed partners to cover any losses and continue operations.

Zhou said:

“Please rest assured that all other cold wallets are secure. All withdrawals are NORMAL.”

The Lazarus Group has been targeting crypto platforms since 2017 when they stole $200 million in bitcoin from four South Korean exchanges.

While authorities and blockchain experts work to trace the stolen funds, experts warn that large-scale crypto thefts will continue to be a major risk.

Tom Robinson, chief scientist at Elliptic, said Bybit had marked the hacker’s wallet addresses in its system to prevent them from cashing out through other exchanges.

Bybit started in 2018 and now has over 60 million users globally, providing access to different cryptocurrencies.

Reports suggest that former U.S. President Donald Trump and ex-PayPal CEO Peter Thiel were among its early investors.

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Source: Legit.ng