"Bybit's $1.4B Crypto Heist: Lazarus Strikes, Exchange Stands Tall"

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit suffered a record-breaking hack on February 21, with North Korea's state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus suspected as the mastermind behind the $1.4 billion exploit. Despite the severity of the breach, Bybit maintained an unconventional crisis management approach by keeping withdrawals open and honoring all user transactions. CEO Ben Zhou addressed concerns on camera, assuring users that the exchange had sufficient funds to cover all withdrawals and securing immediate liquidity through external support rather than purchasing Ether (ETH) outright.

Onchain data showed Bybit receiving approximately 100,000 ETH of inflows from crypto exchanges Binance and Bitget soon after the hack. Binance co-founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao clarified that the funds linked to Binance were not from the exchange itself but likely from large investors providing loans to Bybit. Meanwhile, Bitget CEO Gracie Chen confirmed that the inflows from her platform were its own and that the exchange had blacklisted the hacker's wallets to block any transactions flowing in from illicit addresses.

A chart shared by analyst Darkfost revealed a sharp decline in Bybit's Ethereum holdings due to the exploit, followed by a rapid recovery. Data from DefiLlama indicated that Bybit's total asset balance plummeted by $2.535 billion (including the value lost to the hack), with subsequent withdrawals of $2.852 billion, bringing its reserves down to $5.387 billion. The hack primarily affected Ethereum and related tokens, though the exchange also saw a big drop in its Bitcoin (BTC) balance in the fallout.

Data platform Arkham Intelligence launched a bounty program, offering 50,000 Arkham (ARKM) tokens to anyone who could provide verifiable evidence identifying the hacker. Crypto investigator ZachXBT later claimed the reward, linking the Bybit exploit to the Lazarus Group. He traced an address used by the hackers to one associated with the January Phemex exploit, which saw $85 million in losses. Further analysis suggested potential connections between the Bybit attack and a past hack on BingX.

MetaMask security researcher Taylor Monahan described the incident as not only the largest hack in cryptocurrency history but potentially one of the most significant financial breaches ever recorded. Bybit and Zhou have largely been praised for their