Bybit Offers $140M Bounty to Recover $1.4B Crypto Hack

Crypto exchange Bybit has offered a bounty of up to $140 million to on-chain security experts who help the firm recover assets following a hack that resulted in the loss of over $1.4 billion in Ethereum and related tokens. This is believed to be the largest crypto hack in history based on the value of assets at the time of the attack.

Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou stated, "We want to officially reward our community who lent us their expertise, experience, and support through the Recovery Bounty Program. Our efforts to make this difficult lesson a valuable one do not stop here. Bybit is determined to rise above the setback and fundamentally transform our security infrastructure, improve liquidity, and be a steadfast partner to our friends in the crypto community."

The hack occurred when a transaction from Bybit's multi-signature Ethereum cold wallet to its hot wallet was manipulated, masking the real destination of the hackers' own wallet. The investigation is ongoing, but prominent on-chain sleuth ZachXBT has connected the hack to North Korea's Lazarus group. ZachXBT provided additional evidence connecting wallets used in laundering Bybit funds to other attacks believed to be executed by Lazarus, including hacks on Phemex and BingX.

In response to the hack, stablecoin giant Tether froze $181,000 worth of the USDT tied to stolen Bybit funds, with the help of ZachXBT. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated, "Might not be much but it's honest work. We keep monitoring."