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

Bybit, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has launched a $140 million bounty to track down the largest crypto heist in history. The exchange is offering 10% of recovered funds to cybersecurity experts and blockchain analysts who help retrieve the stolen assets.

The bounty is tied to the recovery of over $1.4 billion in compromised Ethereum. As part of the investigation and recovery efforts, Bybit is pledging 10% of recovered funds to reward ethical cyber and network security experts who play an active role in retrieving the stolen cryptocurrencies in the incident.

Within 24 hours of the event, Bybit received overwhelming support from industry professionals and organizations. The exchange's co-founder and CEO, Ben Zhou, expressed gratitude for the support and emphasized Bybit's commitment to strengthening security and liquidity while fostering industry-wide collaboration.

On-chain investigator ZachXBT identified North Korea's Lazarus Group as the masterminds behind the hack. The funds were taken and moved in four different transactions:

• 401,347 $ETH worth $1.12 billion
• 90,376 $stETH worth $253.16 million
• 15,000 $cmETH worth $44.13 million
• 8,000 $mETH worth $23 million

ZachXBT secured a 50,000 ARKM bounty for discovering that Bybit's Ethereum (ETH) multisig cold wallet was exploited during a routine transfer to the exchange's warm wallet. The hackers manipulated the signing interface, making it display the correct wallet address while altering the underlying smart contract logic.