Bybit’s CEO Updates on Stolen Funds After Highly Sophisticated Hack

Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, has shared an update on the ongoing investigation into the cyberattack that resulted in the loss of over $1.4 billion from the exchange. The hack, which is believed to be carried out by North Korea-backed hackers, has seen nearly 20% of the stolen funds become untraceable due to mixing services.

Zhou revealed that around 77% of the stolen funds remain traceable, but the use of mixing services has made it difficult to track the remaining 20%. This update comes just less than two weeks after the highly sophisticated attack.

Breakdown of the Stolen Funds

According to Zhou, the breakdown of the stolen funds is as follows:

  • 77% of the funds are still traceable
  • 20% has “gone dark” through mixing services
  • 3% have been frozen

Zhou also shared that approximately 83% of the funds, or around $1 billion, were swapped into Bitcoin (BTC) across 6,954 wallets. The hacker primarily used THORChain, a cross-chain liquidity protocol, to convert stolen Ethereum (ETH) into BTC.

“This and the coming week is critical for fund freezing as the funds will start to clear at exchanges, otc [over-the-counter] and p2p [peer-to-peer].” – Ben Zhou

Role of THORChain in the Hack

THORChain has come under scrutiny for its unwillingness to prevent DPRK hackers from laundering the funds. While other protocols took steps to prevent the movement of stolen funds, THORChain validators failed to take meaningful action. Pluto, a core contributor, resigned in protest after nodes rejected a governance proposal to halt ETH transactions.

According to Zhou, 72% ($900 million) of the stolen funds passed through THORChain, which remains traceable. However, around 16% of the funds, totaling 79,655 ETH (~$160 million), have gone dark through ExCH, a centralized crypto mixing service.

Efforts to Freeze the Funds

Zhou mentioned that the exchange is still waiting for an update on these transactions. Another portion of the funds (~$65 million) also remains untraceable as Zhou says more information is needed from OKX’s Web3 wallet.

However, 11 parties, including Mantle, ParaSwap, and blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, have helped freeze some of the funds, resulting in over $2.1 million in bounty payouts.

Stay up-to-date with the latest news on the Bybit hack and other cryptocurrency and finance news on Global Crypto News.

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