Bybit Hit in Biggest Hack in Crypto History

On February 21, Bybit fell victim to the biggest crypto hack ever, with losses of $1.4 billion. The stolen assets included stETH, Mantle Staked ETH (mETH), and many other ERC-20 tokens.

Despite the massive losses, the exchange has maintained financial stability. According to data from DefiLlama, Bybit's total assets have dropped by $5.3 billion, but a Proof-of-Reserve (PoR) report audited by Hacken confirms that Bybit's reserves are still larger than its liabilities.

Bybit Responds Quickly After Hack

After the breach, Bybit processed over 350,000 withdrawal requests within just 10 hours, with 99.9% of transactions completed by 1:45 AM UTC on February 22. CEO Ben Zhou stressed that despite experiencing one of the worst hacks in financial history, all functions of the exchange remained operational.

Several major exchanges were quick to support Bybit with emergency transfers:

- Binance contributes 50,000 ETH
- Bitget provides 40,000 ETH
- Du Jun, co-founder of HTX Group, sends 10,000 ETH

The hack is linked to the Lazarus Group

Blockchain investigators such as Arkham Intelligence and ZachXBT have linked the hack to the Lazarus Group – the organization accused of carrying out the previous $600 million Ronin attack.

According to Meir Dolev, CTO of Cyvers, Bybit's Ethereum multi-signature cold wallet was hacked through a fraudulent transaction. Hackers took control by modifying the smart contract, allowing ETH to be transferred to an unknown address.

Although the wallet service provider Safe was also affected, Bybit's core infrastructure remained secure.

The threat to centralized exchanges

This incident once again shows that centralized exchanges are still the top target for hackers, despite strict security measures.

Over the past year, North Korean hacker groups have carried out several major cryptocurrency thefts, including:
- The $305 million DMM Bitcoin hack
- The $50 million attack on Upbit and Radiant Capital
- The $16 million theft from Rain Management

In response, the United States, Japan, and South Korea have jointly sanctioned 15 North Korean individuals involved in cryptocurrency thefts intended to fund the country’s nuclear program.

According to Immunefi’s report, the cryptocurrency industry lost an estimated $1.49 billion to hacking and fraud in 2024 – a 17% decrease from 2023. Hacking accounted for 98.1% of the losses, with a total loss of $1.47 billion from 192 security incidents.