In a major blow for the cryptocurrency sector, the Dubai grant scholarship reported a security violation resulting in a flight of approximately 1.5 billion dollars from Ethereum, taking place late Friday evening.
The attack occurred during a routine transfer of the “cold” bebit “cold” portfolio to a “hot” wallet used for daily operations, said Bybit. The pirates exploited this process by manipulating the transaction, taking control of the cold portfolio and transferring 401,000 Ethereum to an unidentified address.
The CEO of Bybit, Ben Zhou, stressed that despite the loss, the exchange remains solvent, all the assets of the supported customer 1: 1. He assured users that other portfolios are secure and that withdrawals operate normally.
https://t.co/rf8ulkcrvr
– Ben Zhou (@benbybit) February 22, 2025
After the violation, the price of Ethereum experienced a temporary drop of almost 4%, although it has been stabilized since. Currently, Ethereum is negotiated at $ 2,726.64, reflecting an increase of 0.92% compared to the previous fence. Bitcoin, the main cryptocurrency, is at a price of $ 95,736, marking a drop of 0.22%. The global market capitalization of cryptography amounts to 3.17 billions of dollars, a drop of 0.9% in the last day.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance, highlighted a worrying trend in recent hacks, noting that attackers managed to violate multi-signating cold storage solutions on various platforms, including Bybit.
Some reflections on recent hack (s).
There is a model where hackers have been able to steal large quantities of crypto from multi-Sig “cold storage” solutions, such as with Bybit, Phemex, Wazirx and potentially others. In the case of the most recent statement, the pirates were able to do it …
– CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) February 22, 2025
He pointed out that in the case of Bybit, the pirates manipulated the front interface to display legitimate transactions during the execution of those unauthorized. CZ congratulated the transparent communication of Bybit during the crisis and stressed the importance of not taking security for acquired.
Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, said that the scholarship had transferred 40,000 ETH (worth around $ 105 million) to demand to support them in the treatment of the situation.
“These are the own Bitget funds, which we have sent for the goodwill of the cryptospace. All the funds of Bitget users are stored safely on our platform and users can verify the proof of reserve accordingly. To date, Bybit has already treated 99% of withdrawals on the platform.
Apac ledger chief Takatoshi Shibayama said in an article Linkedin: “It’s great to see Bybit’s peers join them to help another competitor in crisis. Another, which is an act that I have never seen before.
Current surveys
The blockchain analysis company, Arkham Intelligence, suggested a potential involvement of the Lazare group of North Korea in the piracy of Bybit, citing similarities with previous attacks.
Bybit said that he collaborated with cybersecurity experts and law enforcement agencies to trace stolen funds and launched a recovery premium program, offering up to 10% of the amount recovered to those who help The recovery of assets.
On Sunday, in an update, Bybit announced the “complete restoration of significant services and progress in our recovery efforts”.
Our platform has demonstrated remarkable resilience, dealing with record withdrawal volumes while maintaining full operational capacity, the exchange said.
Arkham has also noted that since the hacker, the relay has bought 266,694 ETH worth around $ 742 million.
